Monthly Archives: December 2019

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Three Reasons For Gratitude!

”Upon awakening, let the words Thank You flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion.” – Wayne Dyer

The first thing I do in the morning, between the time I wake up and before my feet hit the floor, is to sit up on the edge of my bed and say: “Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!” It is my expression of Gratitude to my God and Creator, the One Who sustains me. It is my way of showing true appreciation for the gift of Jesus, forgiveness and everlasting relationship. It is my acknowledgement that I cannot do this thing called life alone and I am open and very glad for the help of the Spirit, who walks with me through and in between the moments of life.

I am saying thank you for a good night of restful and rejuvinating sleep, thank you for allowing me to wake up and face a fresh new day, thank you for the adventure and learning that is getting ready to unfold before me. I am intentionally beginning my day with gratitude, because I am truly grateful and I believe that gratitude realigns my life with all that really matters.

When I begin my day in this way, I find that gratitude walks with me all throughout the day. It is never far away from me and it helps me to see the unseen, hear the mysterious and experience the magic that so many times we tend to miss in the hustle of life. Below are a three reasons why I think gratitude is so important and worth the effort:

1. Gratitude Rewires Your Brain! There is actually since behind an attitude of gratitude and the difference it makes in your brain. To put it simply: Gratitude helps you to focus on what really matters and empowers the right things in your life and thinking. In a world where we are continually bombarded with negativity, it is both necessary and a blessing to be able to take on and take out the negative with the positive.

2. Gratitude Realigns Your Spirit! When I am grateful, I cannot help but focus on my blessings and more importantly the source of my blessings. The SOURCE is our power, our purpose, our everything. Gratitude helps to remind me that I am a spiritual being (a soul) getting to live a human experience and that almost everything I experience in this life time is teaching me to be true to who and what I really am.

3. Gratitude Rewards Your Life! The temptation of this life experience is to focus on what we don’t have, which often causes us to not appreciate what we do have. When we practice gratitude, we focus on the reality that we are loved and created to love and when we get love right, then the blessings really begin to flow to and through our life.

I encourage you to practice gratitude. Think about starting your day with it, you will be glad you did…

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Just Breathe!

Get up, get ready, get in the car, drive like a maniac, run into work, grab a cup of coffee, get busy and now what’s next? Some times in the midst of my hurry, I catch myself going through the same “rush routine” day after day and at other times I go through it without even giving it a thought. It is possible to live our lives in a “rush routine” and the great tragedy is: This is not really living.

So, I want to encourage you to stop and take a moment, the next time you catch yourself caught up in the “rush routine”. Stop, take a moment and breathe! That’s right – breathe in, hold it and now breathe out. Now try it again and focus on getting it right – breathe in hold it, hold it, hold it and now breathe out. Now, try it one more time, just for good measure.

There is life in your breath, so if you don’t do anything else today, you need to make sure that you take time to breathe. When I actually slow down enough, to stop for a moment to take and recognize my breath, I realize that there is more to this life than the chase that I so often tend to find myself caught up in.

Crazy thing is: When I actually stop to breathe and realize my breath, I am very often, not even sure what I am chasing. I sometimes find that I am in a hurry just to be in a hurry, not because I necessarily have a dead line I’m trying to meet. These are the times, that I’m glad I listened to that little voice inside of me, reminding me to breathe.

On the grand scale of Eternity, this human experience is a very short thing and we need to make sure that we are not so busy and rushed that we miss what really matters. When I take the time to just breathe, then I realize how nice it is to sit and sip on my hot cup of mocha coffee. I appreciate grown up conversations with friends and begin to understand the role they play in helping me to become a better person and vice versa. I am grateful for this amazing, beautiful gift called life and feel priviledge to get to live and share it with so many amazing people.

So, slow down and take the time to breathe and recognize your breath, you will be glad you did…

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God Doesn’t Move!

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

This morning before the sun decided to shine, while it was still dark, I ended my dream, opened my eyes, sat up on the edge of my bed and said: ”Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!” Then I reached for my phone, opened the Bible App and read the Scripture for today. It came from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, that 8th Century Prophet, who lived some seven hundred years before Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 26:9 I read these words: ”With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”

As soon as I read those words, my mind took a leap back to when I was a little boy singing one of the hymns during a Sunday morning worship service. The hymn was ”Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing” and the line I was singing was the last verse of that classic hymn:

”Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above”

”Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love…” If we are honest, then in our life time of living, we have to admit that our relationship with God is a back and forth, got and cold, near and far kinda thing. The beautiful thing is this: The God, Who created us, loves us with such an amazing love, that He allows us the freedom of choice, which allows us to wander and then when our soul finally comes to it’s senses, we find our loving Creator God waiting for us, right where we left Him.

Here’s the good news today: God doesn’t move! As you think about that magnificent, wonderful and beautiful thought, click this link and listen with your heart to the precious promises all throughout this wonderful song: https://youtu.be/NjfToqk5w5g