Practice Gratitude

-



It is good to praise the Lord...proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.
Psalm 92:1-2

My husband's cousin, who was a life long friend of mine, died this fall. She had battled debilitating health issues for years and lived alone due to a divorce, but she was the kindest, most encouraging person you would ever meet. The visits we had with her the last week of her life were filled with nothing but gratitude for others and how God has made a way to heaven for those who believe in his Son.

My husband had the privilege of performing her memorial service here at Shiloh.  The response from her friends and family to travel here was incredible.  Seventy-five people came!  Who couldn't come were any of the nine caterers the family contacted.  Gratitude exuded from the family and myself as several of my friends stepped up to help me caterer this event.  

God provided a gorgeous day and this woman's grandchildren were even able to swim in the lake after the service. It was a day that could have been filled with sadness, but our hearts were turned to overflowing gratitude in so many ways and we could rejoice in a life well lived that is now with Jesus.

Gratitude changes your outlook, the mode of your heart and thus your actions.

When you start to grumble, switch gears and chose gratitude.

Serving together with others is a joy.
Gods' bounty overflows.









Popular posts from this blog

She Fought the Good Fight

-
Image
February 27 Bible Gateway's verse yesterday was: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him . 1 John 4:9 A fitting verse for the day my everyday friend, soul sister, monster of the faith and mischievous partner in crime, Kaye, left this world behind and headed to her heavenly home. My husband was able to be by her bedside and said he knew she heard the words of our faith that he shared. Her sweet daughter held the phone up to her ear so I could say good-bye and the brightest single star you have ever seen shown through my bedroom window as she exited this earth! Yesterday, my heart literally ached so badly that I told the Lord, "Take me too!" Wouldn't she have been surprised if I had snuck up on her in heaven and said, "Thought you were going somewhere without me, did ya." When we received the call she was ready to go, I called out to the Lord for comfort and He led me to the Bible Gat
Read more

Marriage Matters #1

-
Image
One of life's deepest hurts is when the one you love is unfaithful. Forty years ago, I remember an older friend, whose wife had been unfaithful and left him for another man saying to me..."Boo, I hope you never experience having the person you love and are married to, living 8 blocks away loving someone else." Deep hurt. They divorced. The wife of another friend of ours was having an affair with a fellow church member and a neighbor of theirs who lived 5 blocks away. She moved in with this man and our friend said one evening he was walking by the house where they were living together and saw them sitting at a table having a candlelight dinner. Ugh. The torment. I've always said it would be aweful to find out the person you were married to and  loved deeply loved another.  Hmm. We are the bride of Christ.  Is He our first love? 2 Peter 2:14 says: They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed
Read more

Are You Sinking... Being Tossed About?

-
Image
  A text came in from our neighbor recently, on a cold blustery day, when I was home with a stomach bug and awful headache. He said, "My canoe blew off our dock and has floated over to your shore."  And I'm thinking..."And you want me to do what?" I explained my husband was at work, but could help in the afternoon. I went to the window and could see the boat being tossed back and forth along our shore line. One minute it was close to our main dock and the next the winds had shifted and it was 200 feet in the opposite direction.  What I then realized is it had been taking on water. A text came again that he was in his car and driving around to our property.  Climbing out of my night shirt, I put on warm ups, UGGS boots and a hooded coat and limped outside to see how I could help. When I arrived to the shore line, the neighbor had tossed a 3 prong hook tied to a rope into the boat and was pulling it to the shore with one hand.  He had recently had hand surgery and
Read more