Daily Gratitude

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day! I truly hope that your Thanksgiving Day was filled with family, friends and keen awareness of the countless blessings that abound in our lives.

I apologize for getting this Happy Friday to you a day late. One of my favorite traditions is Black Friday shopping with my Beautiful Bride. It is not really about shopping or buying things; it is about being with Kath and getting to know others as we stand in line with them. With Black Friday starting at midnight - which of course means we had to be in line at 10! - and getting home at 8:00 a.m., I could barely walk straight let alone think straight. I quickly realized - between naps...please notice the multiple reference - that it would be pointless to try to share anything with you yesterday!

I have been thinking a lot this week about Thanksgiving Day. It is the day that we set aside to give thanks. It strikes me as I type this that we have to set aside one day out of 365 to make sure we give thanks. Could write a lot about that however I don't want to chase that rabbit down the trail this morning...I have 3 boys and a brother-in-law who are waiting to put up Christmas lights who will not be very happy with me if I prolong this to much!

No, what has really struck me this week are the many blessings that each of us have in our lives every day, our failure sometimes to recognize them, the millions of people who never do recognize them and the incredibly self-destructive ways we try to fill the void - the failure to recognize how blessed we are - with "stuff." What causes a person to shoot another person because they cut in front of them in line at a department store? On the other hand, what causes a child in Mexico to be genuinely grateful for the gift of half of a candy bar? Why don't we see the smallest of blessings in our lives - interestingly, they often give us the greatest joy - in the simple moments, times of each day? And how come our children often do...ever notice how they have to stop and look at a bug, a plant, etc.? AND please don't let it escape you that it seems to be the adults that have the problem and children who have it figured out!!

There are two thoughts/points I would like to offer this morning.
1. There are a lot of broken, hurting people in this world. What rips at my heart this morning - as a husband and father - is how much of this brokenness can be tied back to the failure of a husband and/or father. Our wives and children need us men! We are called by God to love them (unconditionally!), to lead them (servantly!), to guide them (according to God's will, calling and purpose for their lives...not ours!), to protect them (from all enemies including their own selfish desires), etc. If you are blessed this morning to have a wife and/or children in your home, it is my sincere hope and prayer that you will realize this morning the influence - for good or bad...to the furthest extremes of both! - that you have in their lives. And for all of us, when we encounter someone who is angry, mean, etc - it really isn't very hard to recognize brokenness - I hope and pray that we will slow down, recognize that this is a broken person (think about it...how many mean, nasty and angry babies have you seen? No, as these little blessings grow older, sadly brokenness begins to emerge in some) and give love, mercy and grace freely.
2. For all of us, please be mindful of and protect yourself from the "when/then disease." You know the disease I am speaking about...it has affected each of us at one point or another. It looks something like this:

• "When I get that job [whatever that job is] then I will be happy."
• "When my wife does this [whatever this is], then I will love her unconditionally."
• "When I buy/get that [whatever that is], then I will be happy/content."
• "When I get this or that [whatever this or that is] done, then I will have time for my spouse and children and we will all be happy."

You see, the list goes on and on. We get caught up and believe the lies of "when" and "then." The reality is when "when" happens you and I are still going to be the same people we are - with all of our strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, peace and pain, etc. - and then the "then" is going to be the overflow of our hearts. We will simply have the same problems with new jobs, spouses doing things they may or may not want to do, new possessions, spouses and children who may or may not know us, etc. Joy, happiness, peace and gratitude are not found "when", they are found in the daily living of our lives each and every day...wherever we are. We just need to refocus our vision, the adjustment nob is found in the heart, and look for these things each and every day. In all aspects of life, we generally find what we are looking for!

My hope and prayer for each and every one of us Friends is that this year we will see the blessings that we have in each and every day. That every day we will give thanks for our blessings and that next Thanksgiving Day we will have an overabundance of blessings to count. The blessing might be big and shiny like a new job, house or car or it might be small like the look of a spouse, the gentle touch of a child or the way the sun reflects off of something we never noticed - we find what we are looking for! - before. The blessings are there, we just really need to see, recognize and appreciate them.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you.

Have a great day, enjoy the remainder of this Thanksgiving weekend and please cherish your family and friends.

Kev