Count your blessings and give God thanks
"O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good."
- Psalm 107:1 (AMP)
It's so easy to forget how blessed we really are.
A friend of mine is dealing with a tormenting back issue. Pain is her constant companion day and night. She has been searching for remedies to help, and she is grateful that she now has a plan for her rehabilitation.
In our busy lifestyles and complex world, we can forget the simplest things we have to be thankful for.
As many of you know, our health is one of the greatest assets we have. We can't do or achieve much without it.
Thanking God throughout our day for our health, the things we're able to do such as walking, talking, bending, lifting or seeing and hearing are great places to start. Any one of these is an asset.
Being grateful for our finances (as little or much as we have), our family, friends and the simplest things in life, goes a long way to show God how grateful we are.
We don't thank God to move him to do something for us. We thank him for each precious moment because doing so improves our attitudes, renews our minds and gives us a new perspective on life, and hope for better things to come.
It stops the grumbling, and helps us overcome fear and depression. It cultivates satisfaction and fills our hearts and minds with joy.
In these modern times, we take so much for granted. We need to be creative and think about the kinds of things God does for us that we appreciate. If we think we have nothing to be thankful for, our eternal salvation alone is a wonderful thing to be grateful for.
Learning to have a grateful heart and maintaining it is something we need to start doing. A heart filled with gratitude opens doors for blessings to flow and praises God for his goodness.
• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, life coach and nurse. She will be speaking on "Cultivating a heart of gratitude" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at Panera Bread in Gurnee. Contact her to speak at your group or event, Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413.