To B U S Y to be Thankful?

I am back....This week I became one of those people who was SOOOO    B U S Y   that they did not make the time to do the things that are most important to them! 

That must   S T O P   and stop it will ~ today!

Late last night (when I could not sleep, because of the million, trillion, even zillion, things that were running through my head)  I got on facebook.   I saw the new profile picture my niece had placed and it really moved my spirit.  It was one of those cute poster like sayings that are becoming so popular on facebook.  But what moved my spirit was what it said...."What if you woke up today and all you had left in your life were the things you thanked God for yesterday?"

WOW... what an eyeopener. 

Do we get to busy to even say thank you to God for the things in our life?  How sad is that? 

I am a volunteer trainer at hospice and one of the exercises I do to help the volunteers understand the many loses the patient is experiencing; is quite simple ~ but very profound.  I give each volunteer 5 slips of paper and ask them to write five different things in their life that they are thankful for...things that give them joy, purpose and the zeal to go on.  It must be things not people. 

My five slips of paper would read:

• My ability to read my Bible
• My ability to talk to God
• My computer
• My HGTV
• MUSIC

Next, I ask them to turn the slips of paper over so I can not see what they wrote.  I talk about the hospice patient and the fact that the disease has won, and the patient now has a limited life expectancy and they are beginning to loose the things in their life that gave them joy, purpose, and zeal.  As I walk around the room talking about these loses and how the patient has no control over them; I take away their slips of overturned papers...one at a time until they only have one left in front of them.  Then I ask them to turn over their one remaining slip of paper and read to me what they have left.  They become pretty perturbed at me and the fact that I took away so many of their favorites.  The one thing they have left may make it really hard to stay thankful.

Life can get like that sometimes....we may loose our slips of paper, and find ourselves with slim pickens compared to what we once had.

So my question to you and to me is ....Can we stay thankful for what we do have in our life instead of looking back and pining for what we used to have?

Can we wake up every morning and really say Thank You to God for the things in our life?   

Y E S....it can be done.  Faye's very condensed interpretation of what Paul wrote: Not looking back at what was in our life...but looking at what is and being thankful for it is one of the  keys to peace and joy in the Lord.  Learning to be content in whatever state we are in (and that does not mean Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina etc) it means learning to B content and thankful for what IS.

My challenge for you and me today is to stop and thank God for what we do have in our life.  Thank Him for everything ~ even the things that seem little...Because we never know what life is going to bring our way and we may find ourselves with only one of those slips of paper left.

Read it, study it, live it...the Word of God.

It is powerful and full of tools to live by.

Have a Super Wonderful Day...
   Smile at everyone you walk past, it will make them wonder what mischief you have been up to.