Tuesday August 30 2016  A THANKFUL HEART

Hopefully I will never take for granted the country I live in.  Yes, we have major problems, everything from politics to mosquitoes.  And I don’t know which are more bothersome, the politicians, laws, and taxes, or the mosquitoes.  But one thing I do know is that we have opportunities available to us that many people in other countries do not have.  We have ample food available; anything from fine dining to food pantries.  We have education available from pre-K through the 12^th grade.  We have the very rich as well as those who barely scrape by.  We have social services available, most of us have a dwelling of some sort to live in, we have freedom to express “most” of our opinions, we still have the ability to protect ourselves with firearms, and we have heat and air-conditioning.

The unfortunate thing about living in the United States is that all too often we take everything for granted.  We see more, we want more.  We want more, we spend more.  And so many people go through their lives dissatisfied with where they live, what they drive, what they own or don’t own, how they look, how old they aren’t or how old they’ve become.  Where is the joy, where is the family support, where is the compassion?

Yes, I know I am getting older and of course all old people probably say what I’m going to say,  “What happened to the world I used to live in?”  What happened to the world where families were knit together and helped one another endure the hard times of life?  The world is no longer like it was when I was a kid.  And that is probably both a positive and a negative.  And I know my mother said the very same thing about her past.  And as I have looked back over the lives of my family who lived in my mother’s generation, and where they lived, and with the father they had, I think that maybe the change was for the better.  But that is only because I am looking through a narrow view.  I’m reading the biography of the first President Bush as told by his son, the second President Bush.  The second President Bush’s grandmother was born one year later that my grandmother was born.  That pretty much puts us in the same generation. 

As I think back over what my Grandmother’s life was like as a sharecropper’s wife living in the back hills of Arkansas, and then read about how Bush’s grandmother lived, it is like two separate worlds.  The Bush’s were extravagantly wealthy, tennis matches were their exercise, they never had to work picking cotton at the age of five years old, and I would imagine they never went hungry.  They were all highly educated whereas my mother’s family of 13 children had only one child that went to school long enough to earn a high school diploma and that was the youngest child of the family.  Does it make me angry or jealous or hurt because someone else had so much.  No.  Instead it makes me sad that so many people in my family and other families during that time suffered so desperately.  But when I step back and look from the perspective of what each of my mother’s siblings did with their lives, it fills me with joy to know that because of living in the country we live in, my family members were able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, set a different course for their life, and lived long and productive lives.  And the twelve surviving siblings were a tight knit family extending helping hands to each other.  Rather than being pulled apart, they pulled together.  That is a satisfying and wondrous accomplishment.  And where else could that happen but here, in the United States of America?

There are many countries where the citizens cannot change their status in life regardless of what they do.  I think of India and the caste system.  I think of the Muslim countries and the status of women.  I think of Africa and some of the starving countries where citizens never receive the food deliveries that are donated to them because the corrupt government keeps it for the “elite”.  So many atrocities, so much sadness, so many sorrows in the world and so many people who have no opportunity to better themselves.

I never want to take one thing I eat, own, or can offer to others for granted; even if it is just a listening ear, or a kind word.  I never want to take for granted the freedom I have of being able to drive to a grocery store and have food on the shelves.  I look around at all the options I have to choose from and I think of a photograph I viewed of a starving young child, skin and bones, sitting on dry parched land with a vulture waiting and watching in the background for the child to keel over and die.  I think of the American news photographer who took that picture and was so distraught when he came back to the United States because he couldn’t help the dying children.  About three months after he took the photo he took his own life because he could not live with the sadness and heartache he saw while on his foreign assignment.

People; open your eyes to the blessings that surround you.  Open your hearts to those who are less fortunate.  Make it a point to not complain because it’s too hot or too cold or the restaurant doesn’t have your brand of soda.  Instead, be thankful.  Be grateful for every little convenience, for the fresh air you have to breathe, for medical care which is available, for social services if you need them, and then look beyond yourself and help someone else who may be less fortunate.  Be thankful for the food on your plate and the bed you sleep in.  Be thankful for water that comes out a tap in the privacy of your own bathroom. 

Regardless of how much you have or do not have, look around and count your blessings.  Learn how to be content.  True contentment comes when you are satisfied with what you have, not when you get more.

Every time you hear yourself complain about something, stop, look inside yourself, and examine from where and why that complaint originated.  Then take stock of where you are, what you are doing, and what your opportunities are.  Instead of complaining, actually speak aloud what you have to be thankful for in that very setting.  And if you have a relationship with God you will find that you have so much for which to be appreciative.  And you may surprise yourself by realizing that after a while, the complaints may stop coming and your heart will be full, satisfied and content.

 

A THANKFUL HEART

By Kathleen Martens

August 30, 2016

 

Oh to give thanks

For every little gift

Instead of constantly

Always so miffed.

 

Just to be satisfied

To open your eyes

And be able to see

A delicate butterfly.

 

And to hear the sound

Of your child’s voice,

Or as you travel

To your place of choice.

 

To awaken at dawn

In the comfort of home,

For privacy and comfort

And the use of a phone.

 

Be thankful for food

That every day you eat,

Fruits and vegetables,

Desserts and meats.

 

Never take for granted

You have shoes on your feet

And be ever grateful

For air conditioning and heat.

 

Give thanks for a job

Where you can earn a living

And that which is available

To help others by giving.

 

Be thankful for friends,

For laughter and fun.

And for two legs

So you can jog or run.

 

There is just so much

When you look around,

Because you’ll discover,

There’s more to be found.

 

Every day is a gift

When you can get out of bed.

It means another day to live

Because you’re not dead.

 

So give thanks to God

With great intent.

Be thankful for what you have

And you’ll become content.

 

God, thank You for every blessing I receive each day.

Lord, thank You for all the wisdom You share in Your Holy Word.

Thank You O Lord for renewing my mind.

Thank You Lord for all the lessons You have taught me.

Lord, thank You for the grateful heart You have given me.

Thank You for the computer I am using.

Thank You Lord that You have shown me through Your Word how to have a thankful heart.

 

Colossians 3:15 (NKJV)

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

 

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

 

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS YOU!