Message

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In our church we give a great deal of thought to what it means to walk in God's ways. We hope to live in the light of God's commandments, and to follow Jesus, partly because we believe, based on experience, that doing so will help us live lives that are truly joyous and peace-filled. Not that any of us have achieved this by any means, but we aspire to it as an ideal. We believe that we are changed for the better as we apply ourselves to God's way day by day. And when we try to live according to God's way, any day will be a little better than it might have been without God.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we have been thinking about how gratitude to God can transform our living. We want to be grateful people every day of the year! And we believe that gratitude is not only the proper response to God's love as we experience it our lives, but is also a discipline which can be practiced to help us become more grateful and happy.

Here is a wonderful meditation on Gratitude which I included in a recent sermon. The writer's name is Melody Beattie.

Gratitude

Say thank you, until you mean it. Thank God for everyone and everything sent your way.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaol to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Gratitude makes things right.

Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude's power. We can start with who we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, then let it work its magic.

Say thank you, until you mean it. If you say it long enough, you will believe it.