100% Gratitude

Thankfulness was a virtue my parents stressed in their parenting. They expected my siblings and I to express our gratitude to others. We were taught to say “Thank
you,” at appropriate times, write thank you cards for gifts, and remember to pray our
thanks to God. I remember hearing over and over the story of the ten lepers Jesus healed. The lesson was, that we should be like the one who expressed his thanks, not like the other nine.

The scriptures tell us about a time when ten lepers called out for mercy from
Jesus. They needed healing from the disease, that not only debilitated their bodies, but also took away their families, jobs, reputations, and everything that made them
worthwhile as people. Lepers were sent away from society to die. Their only hope was to be healed by God. When Jesus sent the ten to see the priests, they seemed hurried away before they even looked for the signs of healing. When they did see the evidence of being disease free, I am sure they all were very happy and thankful. We do not know for certain, but it is possible that all ten shouted praise to God. Only one, however, returned to thank Jesus personally.

I wonder if God still gets only one out of ten of His children coming back to
express their gratitude. Do I fall into those statistics in regards to giving a personal thank you for only ten percent of my blessings? Certainly, some blessings go unnoticed by me. Every day He moves on my behalf without my asking. Sometimes I may not see His hand directing the course of events. Even so, it seems to me that it might be wise to thank God for all I don’t see as well as for all the things I do see.

Dear Heavenly Father, You have been so very kind to me. You give me much
more than I ever ask. Your heart is big with generosity. Please forgive me for not
recognizing all Your gifts. Heal my blindness. Open my eyes to see You in my every day.
Thank You for it all.

Obstacles

Life is like a maze, or maybe it is more like an obstacle course. Every day there are things that get in our way. We need to go around, over, through or under, but doing so is hard work and sometimes the tasks seem insurmountable! Projects just can't seem to come together, the weather or mechanical items don't cooperate with your plan, someone says something that stops you in your tracks..

Of course there are days when life is like jogging through the park. There is pretty scenery, and the obstacles are minor. The path may wind around the big obstacles, but the cracks in the sidewalk need to be carefully maneuvered or an ankle can be turned and down you go.

Whatever kind of day we may have there is always a silver lining: a lesson learned, a joy experienced. Being thankful for everything is not easy either but it sure makes the days full of sunshine and not rain.