In my current prayer life the words gratitude and thank you, generosity and intentional living keep coming to the forefront. When God speaks in my life the words tend to get louder (and louder) until I pay attention. The words are everywhere. My kids are using "thank you" more often without prompting (yeah!). On facebook people are taking the gratitude challenge and the 5 days of thankfulness posts are popping up. Every time I walk into my kitchen our Family Rules jump out at me: Be Thankful; Be Grateful.
If those are the directives I give to my family how do I provide an example of living a life of gratitude? Thanksliving.
It seems to me we first become grateful. We name and claim the blessings we recognize in our life. The kids and I were talking and I mentioned to them my first thought when I wake up in the morning is "Thank You God! Thank you for a new day."
What if we kept going? What if we walked through our days intentionally looking for moments of gratitude? The more we see them, feel them, share them, the more thankful we become.
Then what? What happens when we are thankful? Just from observing thankful people around me I realize the more thankful people become the more generous they become. The more people present lives of gratitude the less they see scarcity and the more willing they are to share. Share their lives, their hearts, their friendship, their hospitality, eventually their all.
The world is so broken, so dark, so scary right now. Part of my work as a Deacon is to live in the brokenness, to witness within it, to share with others what I see, feel and experience. That's hard. It's also real. As a Mommy I look at my kids growing up in these uncertain times and I know I can't shield them or really even protect them from the reality of the world we live. However, I can provide an example of being Thankful in all circumstances. I can be a witness that Joy is not an emotion such as happiness that comes and goes depending on what is happening or not happening around me. I can show them that Joy is possible in all things because God is in all things. God is and was and ever shall be and moves amongst us now in the midst of the broken, the dark and the scary. God is ever with us.
Once we recognize, name and claim our moments of gratitude and we proclaim our thank you we have one more place we can go; living our lives intentionally in generosity. Our very lives become our Thank You to God. Thanksliving.
I haven't received a Gratitude or Thankfulness challenge on facebook. So I have been challenging myself to live a life of Thanksliving. Each day to say Thank You and do something tangible to express my Thank You. Now it's time to share.
A new adventure for this Mommy Deacon; Join me?
Today my active response to my first prayer of the day, my "Thank You God for this new day" is to donate blood. I was born with congenital heart disease and doctors were able to save my life. My body is able to oxygenate my own blood. Not only was I saved but I have gone on to live a full and active life. Thanks be to God! My heart pumping blood was gifted back to me. In Thanksliving I share that gift with others today. May it please God.
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