gratitude

It was my turn to lead staff devotions a couple of weeks ago. Normally that is a tense and stressful time. What, oh what will I talk about? This year it was easy. I chose gratitude as the topic as that's what I'm trying to focus on this year. Gratitude is hard, but it does help me deal with certain situations. I even had time to put it into practice the week I was on staff devotions. When it's your turn for staff devotions, you're also responsible for staff room clean-up. Miraculously I remembered to do this every day that week. A momentous occasion, to say the least! Usually when I have to do this, I grumble about people who can't do their own dishes, meaning I have to do a sink full of dishes. This time, when I was tempted to grumble, I stopped myself, and tried to find a way to be grateful in the situation. And, I found one! There's now a dishwasher. So all I had to do was put the dishes in the dishwasher. It was good.

Below are some quotations and Bible verses I shared in my devotions that week.

Johannes A. Gaertner
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

John F. Kennedy
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Melodie Beattie
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

David Steindl-Rast
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:15.

Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship. Hebrews 12:28

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 6 and 7

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High.
He who sacrifices thanks offerings honours me, and he prepares the way, so that I may show him the salvation of God.
Psalm 50: 14, 23

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34