By Every Thursday morning I meet with an online bible study. It’s a time of sharing, prayers, praise and scripture. Today, because we are approaching the Thanksgiving week, the leaders changed the agenda. Instead of reading the latest chapter in Acts (we are working slowly through Acts), we went around the ‘room’ and shared what we were grateful for. My heart filled with love at all the little and big things each person mentioned. We sometimes forget how many blessings we have.
Today’s gratitude challenge is for you to come up with your gratitude list. There is no maximum or minimum. It isn’t a competition. This is an opportunity to see with fresh eyes the abundance of good things in your life. I’ll get you started with my list (just off the top of my head) of things this year (in no particular order).
- health
- twin sister and her family
- brothers and their families
- my neighbor/friend/walking buddy Inez
- church
- handbell ringers
- choir
- Dr. Raskin (who took care of Mavis)
- the time I had with Mavis
- getting to visit my friend Ana in Alaska
- getting to go to Alaska
- the travel buddies I have (we enjoyed traveling to Germany together so much that we’re traveling to London in a few weeks)
- the roof over my head
- the abundance of food in our country
- living in America
I could go on and on…and I hope you can too.
We concluded the bible study with Psalm 112, which I’ve posted here (in pink, which makes me happy) and a picture of the abundant spread from a party I hosted at my house recently for the handbell ringers:
Psalm 112
1 Praise the Lord!
How joyful are those who fear the Lord
and delight in obeying his commands.
2 Their children will be successful everywhere;
an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
3 They themselves will be wealthy,
and their good deeds will last forever.
4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly.
They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
5 Good comes to those who lend money generously
and conduct their business fairly.
6 Such people will not be overcome by evil.
Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
7 They do not fear bad news;
they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.
8 They are confident and fearless
and can face their foes triumphantly.
9 They share freely and give generously to those in need.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.
They will have influence and honor.
10 The wicked will see this and be infuriated.
They will grind their teeth in anger;
they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.
