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Thoughts for a Woman's Heart |
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encouragement in things that matter |
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An Attitude Changer
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Did you know that gratitude is an attitude that can change other attitudes? Gratitude is simply a different way of looking at life. Max Lucado defines gratitude as a greater awareness of what I have than what I don’t have – or, of what I did not have, or probably will never have. The abandoned lepers in Scripture were isolated from family, friends, and community, ravaged physically with their deforming and disabling disease, and living in squalor. There were ten lepers on one occasion who dared to approach Jesus after somehow hearing of His miracles. Jesus’ response to them brought the healing they desired, although they did not recognize what Jesus had done until they began walking away to be examined by the priests. Only one of the ten returned to Jesus to express his profound gratitude. Where was the focus of this one? He was not thinking of the years behind him, but he was overwhelmed with the joy and the hope of the moment.
Life can afflict us all in different ways from the difficult to the traumatic to the horrendous. As time begins to move us past these afflictions and we begin to hope for God’s healing, we can still be bound by the wrongs and the hurts that have been ours. Anger or depression can root itself in our hearts, and the past will continue to unleash its oppression. Choosing to look for God’s goodness and provision that was also a part of the difficult, or was given to us because of the difficult, will release the oppression we feel. Even the forgiveness of others will come more easily when we choose an attitude of gratitude.
In our day to day world, a negative, unappreciative attitude toward a spouse, a friend, or our child, can be dramatically altered when I consciously choose to focus on the good within that person, or the little things he or she does that deserve my thanks. Mentally rehearsing the good, or even better, writing it down in a "gratitude journal," will, over time, literally change my perspective, and my attitude. I may actually find myself saying words of gratitude out loud to the one who I once thought of very negatively. Gratitude will energize me emotionally, and it will energize my spiritual walk as well, as I choose to obey what God has asked me to do. In turn, I may even find myself physically energized. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
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— Bev |
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