What Can You Do When Being Thankful Is Boring?

The practice of thankfulness is a decision that needs constant reaffirmation. I get tired of telling God that I am thankful for this or that. Of course, I am thankful but I get bored with the same old expressions.

I am thankful to God that I have a job, I am healthy, my kids are doing well, for my wife, and for my home. I am thankful, but expressing it in another prayer today seems old, and didn't I thank God for these same blessings yesterday?

This is a dangerous attitude. If you feel bored with thanksgiving you may begin to neglect it altogether, which is an insult to God who gives blessings.

Our lives should be an expression of gratitude. Giving service to God and mankind is as valuable an expression of thankfulness as a prayer said in King James prose. Acts done in God's name are as valuable an expression of thankfulness as any devotional worship, but such offerings should be done with the intent of giving thanks.

We should not minimize the value of verbal thanks to the Almighty, but when it gets dull and boring thanksgiving needs to be revisited and reinvested in.  Acts of service with verbal expressions of gratitude make us less likely to put thanksgiving in a compartment of our faith that is distant from our daily activities.

We should all resolve to give thanks with our words, prayers, songs and verbal expressions; and we should resolve to give thanks in actions big and little done in the name of God.(c) Adron 12/1/14

Thankful For A Small Bonus Paycheck

The company I work for has a program where they share a percentage of the profits with the employees as a bonus check. These checks come out twice a year and amounts to about an extra paycheck.

Yesterday there was a sign next to the time clock that advised the bonus checks were available to pick up at the manager's office.  You could feel the excitement in the air. There was a stream of personal coming and going through the office door all day. Just before the end of my shift I was told to go and receive my check- which I gladly did.

NOT SURPRISE
I didn't open the envelope with the check in it until I got home. My family has bills so I held onto it knowing I was going to deposit it. Finally in my kitchen I opened it and found it less than what I hoped for.

I said, "It is not fantastic, it is just like a regular paycheck, and I would have liked to get more."  For a moment I felt disappointed.

I KNOW
I know I should be thankful. It may not have been a huge check but it was a little extra just the same. Many people do not get a bonus check and the company I work for does not have to give them but they do because they have good reasons to.

DECISION
It took about a day but I made a decision. I decided the right thing to do was to be thankful. I offered a prayer of thanks since then and whenever any thought of disappointment came back I resolved to be thankful instead. Being thankful is the right thing to do no matter the size of the blessing, big or small, we should still be thankful for it.

Thankful for Baking Bread

I'm an old man, at least my kids tell me I am.  As I get older I get more headaches from cheap grocery store food because they have a lot of chemicals like preservatives and artificial flavorings. More and more things seem to give me headaches. I have slowly been adopting an all-natural diet; however, I have found some things say they are all natural but they really are not.

One thing I tried to do this week was to bake my own bread out of organic whole wheat. I thought it would be a disaster. I bought the ingredients and followed the instructions, even though I did not know what some of it meant and some of it I misunderstood. It took forever to add the flower to the mix little by little and when it got all mixed in it was like stirring half set concrete. The dough never did rise as I thought it should have, maybe I was too impatient, and I think I baked it for a little too long.

Even though those things went badly the bread came out of the oven more or less OK. It was stuck to the side of the pan and sunk down a little at the top but it was eatable.

I had a peanut butter sandwich on it and it was good, and the buttered toast was great. I am delighted that I can still learn something and that I can now enjoy affordable bread with no preservative or chemicals.

I feel that in all of this God was with me. I have often asked God to help me understand my headaches and I am thankful to be able to learn that I can avoid them by avoiding the chemicals in my food that cause them. I am thankful that I can still learn a new trick now and then. I am thankful I can be confident the future loaves of chemical free bread will be even better.

What Happens When You Give Thanks For Every Little Thing?

I decided that I have not been diligent in the "Practice of The Presence of The Lord." (This is the idea of acting out the truth that God is always with you, and you can always talk to him.) I have daily Bible reading and prayer times but it is only a part of my personal walk with the Father.

I resolved to practice the Lord's presence by giving thanks God for everything that I could think of today, and express it by a short prayer to the Father of Blessings. I had many, many opportunities to give thanks to the Almighty.

I thanked the Lord for...

• The beautiful sky.
• The people I work with.
• The people I work for.
• The people I saw walking by.
• The health I enjoyed.
• The ability to work.
• The friends I saw when I saw them.
• The lunch I enjoyed.
• Sitting outside on my break.
• My supervisor at work.
• The safe ride to work.
• Seeing a church friend during the day.
• The quietness of a peaceful home.
• The food I had.
• The flowers in my wife's garden.
• Fellowship with friends of faith at work.
• The company I work for.
• Friendships I experienced.

It came and went because I didn't remember to be thankful every moment but having tried to thank God for everything I felt I was more focused on God and was more aware of his blessings. I felt more positive and grateful. It felt that I was doing what is right.

When things happened that would normally cause me to be frustrated and think resentful thoughts I found myself thinking nothing of it, like it was no big deal.

It seemed that I was receiving more blessings than usual or maybe I was just seeing them more.

I will continue to attempt to practice the attitude of reflective thanksgiving in everything I can.

Why I am Thankful For Volunteering

It is May and the school year is ending. Awana, the club where I volunteer, also ends its school year program since it is an outreach to school aged children. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve God and community by helping at this club.

HARD WORK
It is hard work. Each week we have to teach a Bible lesson, and that is not as easy as it sounds, since God's Word must be handled with reverence. The kids are a handful since I am helping with the younger ones. Our club meets on Friday nights and it is often after a hard week and we are tired. Every week we need to think of crafts for the kids. The club is about two hours long and that makes Fridays a long day.

CONVINCED
I believe it is essential to give to community- be it Church, a club, or civic organization. When we have gifts from God we are really stewards of those gifts. The gifts God gives us are not for our consumption but for using to serve.

BLESSED
I feel blessed to be able to help in the Awana Club.

• It has forced me to learn many new skills especially communication skills, if you can get an abstract truth, like heaven, across to the mind of a six year old you can teach anybody anything.  
• I see that I have grown in character every year I do this. 
• I feel that I have received more that I give.
• I am amazed and humbled when parents tell me the kids learn stuff and the parents thank me.
• I have made friends with wonderful people who also volunteer. 
• I have learned to be more of a servant and less self-absorbed.
• Volunteering gives me a bigger perspective on life.
• I have received friendship and affection from kids and respect and admiration from adult parents.
• I see God work through many circumstances involving the club.

THANKFUL

I am thankful for this opportunity and all the blessings it has given me. I look forward to autumn when the club begins again.

What To Do When You Don't Feel Thankful

It has been a hard week and today was a hard day: and I am looking ahead to a busy next few days where I do not see much relief.  I know I have many things to be thankful for but I am tired and do not feel thankful. I feel that I do not want to think much about the things I am thankful for and I feel that I do not want to spend time giving thanks to the Giver Of All Blessings, my Lord.

BUT
I know I should be thankful. I have been blessed. The very fact that I have been busy reflects that I have a family to care for, a job for an income, a home to live in and maintain, a church community to serve in.

NOT THE SAME
Feeling thankful is not the same as being thankful. Feelings are a blessing but the knowledge of what is right is the motivation of thankfulness. We give thanks because it is the right thing to do.

A DECISION
Though I don't feel thankful I will give thanks because I am blessed and the one who blesses is Good.

     * I am thankful for friends, family, home, job, chores, hobbies, and duties.
     * I am thankful that my diligent service is an opportunity to demonstrate my grateful stewardship of the blessings I have.
     * I am thankful that we have dirty dishes to clean up because that means we had food to eat.
     * I am thankful that we have a messy house to clean because that means we have a home to live in.
     * I am thankful for the aches and pains of getting old because that means I am still here to do some good.

Does God Want Us To Be Thankful?

It seems God would want us happy and we feel grateful to him when things go our way, but what about those times when things go badly?  Should we still be thankful?

The Bible sheds some light on this question.
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18, NIV.

GOD OF CIRCUMSTANCES
God is the supreme ruler in the universe so the circumstances in our lives are not accidental. We may feel like the world is out of control and that everything is against us, and we may ask, "How can I be thankful in a situation like this?"  We must remember that God loves us and has our good as his goal; we can trust in his mercy and kind favor for the outcome of the circumstances.

Knowing that God is the Loving Lord Of All we can be thankful for the circumstances in our lives. It is his will for us to be thankful people who are grateful for his grace in our lives. There are countless scriptures that command, advise, and direct us to be thankful to God.

MANY REASONS
Maybe the circumstances in our lives right now are not the best but we have much we can give thanks for.
   
     * We can be thankful that we are alive.
     * We can be thankful for family and friends.
     * We can be thankful for the food and clothing we have.
     * We can be thankful for each new day.
     * We can be thankful for the little things that make us smile.
     * We can be thankful for the measure of freedom we have in this world.
     * We can be thankful that God loves us.
     * We can be thankful that he forgives us for our sin by the death of Jesus on the cross as our sacrifice.
     * We can be thankful that by faith in him we have a hope in heaven that will last forever.

A POSITIVE EFFECT
God wants us to be fruitful people, and to grow beyond ourselves. Being thankful in a difficult circumstance makes you bigger than the circumstance. It takes control over the situation. It delivers our mind from the effects of events to empower us to grow through the situation.

God is right to ask for our gratitude. He deserves thanks. He blesses it. It is an expression of deep faith in his goodness and care. It is a declaration heard by angles in heaven and echoes defeat to those forces in darkness.

To learn more about how to have a hope of heaven through Jesus follow this link: Salvation.

Thankful For The Family Cat.

Don't get me wrong I am not a cat lover. I tolerate cats. They are annoying. The litter box needs attention. The food and water dish need replacing. If they are inside they want outside and if they are outside they want inside, often with a small mammal dangling squeaking in its mouth.  At the darkest hour of the night when you are in the deepest sleep they will jump up on the dresser and push things off to wake you up so you can let them out.

But I am thankful for our cat.  He may not be long for this world as old and infirm as he is and I begrudgingly have to admit he has added much to our house hold.  He has entertained us chasing strings and batting balls.  We have laughed at him doing the silly things cats do. We laugh when he sits in the window growling at the squirrels in the yard or batting the glass trying to catch a bird.  He has caught a good share of mice and other rodents.

He is the friendliest cat in the neighborhood and is known by all. He always wants to sit on somebody's lap, where he can be petted and he will purr for the longest time.  Like a dog he comes to the door to greet us when we come in.

I am thankful for him since he has been a blessing to the others in our family.  My kids love him and have learned to care for him and that is a lesson that will help them later in life.  My wife loves him and has found much comfort in his affection for her. My family has found many hours of play and satisfaction with him.

I may not like cats but I can be thankful for this one.

Why Give Thanks Over Again.

It is the end of my day and I want to think about what I have to be thankful for, but nothing jumps into my mind.  This is part of the struggle of being thankful. God has been good and we should thank him even if it just doesn't spontaneously sprout out from us.

Sometimes it is that we feel like we are recycling old thanks. We feel like we thanked God for that thing yesterday or last week and so it is redundant to express to God our thanks again. But that is a wrong attitude. God has continued to bless and so we should continue to be thankful. If it is something we expressed thanks for in the past it is still good to thank him again.

It is different when something is exciting and fun; we thank God then and he is honored it just might be more honor when it is not an emotional response. To be thankful when the coals of emotion are cooled off may be the greater thanks, because it is a decided and deliberate thanks.

I am thankful for...

    * My family. I was able to spend special moments with several of my family today.
    * That my wife found some good deals when shopping and saved money on needed things.
    * For my church and the ministry of the leaders there.
    * For a day off from work and a job to go to.
    * That I wrote a poem. (Read my poems in my other blog).
    * For the washing machine. It would be so hard to clean clothes without it.
    * For our home.
    * I enjoyed some hobbies today.
    * Though I spent a lot of time driving my kids different places I was given safety on the road.
    * For our country.
    * That God has watched over our family and kept us safe.

Some of these things were mentioned in past post, but I am still thankful for them, and God is still honored when I give him thanks.

Why Thankful For Weekend Chores.

Weekend chores are not fun and sometimes make us wish we were back at work instead.

I had a burned out headlight in my car, I was going to fix it myself to save money. These jobs always fill me with anxiety and end up giving me frustration. I started out with a prayer to God to give me help. This time I had a surprise. The video on the internet gave me some good advice. I found a car parts dealer that was very helpful, and the set of two head lamps and two brake lights only came to twenty one dollars. The job was easy compared to my experiences in the past. I was glad that the designers of the car figured out some easy ways to do things. I felt God was helping me.

I had to put some paintings into frames for an upcoming art show. There were some prints I had to mat, mount, and frame under glass. I am much better at painting a picture than I am in framing it. I do not have a big table to lay out the mat-board and cut it, or all the tools to do the job right, but the pictures all were done by midnight. I am grateful at how beautiful they looked when they were mounted and framed.  I believe the Lord was helping me.

Laundry was piling up since I had been doing other jobs. It is an easy thing to toss the clothes in the washer with a handful of perfumed soap, then push a button and come back later to clean clothes. I am thankful for the modern machinery that allows us to do things so easily. In other countries, and many places here, clean clothes are the result of hours of scrubbing, rinsing and drying out. It is wonderful to do several loads of clothes without thinking about it.

A few weeks ago I bought something at the store that we didn't need or use. We can't afford to spend money carelessly, it is the Lord's money and we have to be careful how we use it. I took the item back to the store. In the parking lot I prayed for God to be with me, I hate to stand in line and fret that they are going to give me a problem and for some reason they won't accept the return. I was glad to have the receipt still in my possession since I always louse them, and was happy to see no one in line at the customer service counter. This is rare.  The store made it so easy I was almost overjoyed when she said she put the money back on my credit card.

There are always jobs like cleaning to do around the house. I am thankful to have a house to clean, when so many people do not have a home.  I am more thankful that these jobs are ways I see God as my helper and provider. No matter how little the task I find I can ask God and he is there.

How I Become Thankful.

Thankfulness sometimes is a decision. We may have times when our emotions well up in gratitude, but gut emotions are fickle things and sometimes let you down. Thankfulness is too valuable a virtue to be left to the whim of gut feelings.

There may be days when we do not feel very grateful yet considering the many blessings God has given each one of us we know we ought to be thankful. It is the right thing to do.

Many times we need to change our thinking or our point of view. We have gotten into a rut of depression or selfishness or high expectations and have a false impression that there is little or nothing to be thankful for. Many have developed strategies and programs to help in this area, and a search through the library or the internet will find them.

My personal approach to not being grateful is twofold:
First I pray. I confess to God my failure to be thankful, I admit to him it is wrong to not be appreciative and acknowledge it is offensive to his generosity to not give thanks for my blessings.  I ask him to show me what I should be thankful for.
Second I make a list, often mental but occasionally I write it out, I say what I am thankful for and why.

It may look like this:

     I am thankful for
     My wonderful wife.
     My wonderful kids.
     My home it is dry, warm, and has running water.
     My two cats who entertain me.
     My friends who I enjoy.
     For coffee because I like the taste and it wakes me up.
     The kids I teach to draw because they inspire me.
     My job because it puts bread on my table.
     For sunshine because it is good.
     For today because it is a day off from work.
     My health because many my age are infirm.
     For music because it is relaxing for me.
     For talent as an artist to paint something people enjoy.
     For my Church which is so supportive of me and my family.
   
I find I need to cut it short because after a few moments I get so many ideas that there is too many to keep up with and write down.

I admit I do not do this every day, but frequently, I feel it is too important to neglect.

Why Is It Hard To Be Thankful In Bad Situations?

Why is it is hard to be thankful in bad situations. Is it because our ability to express thanks is driven by external circumstances, or is it because we do not have the engine of thankfulness inside of us?

I experienced a reversal of fortune and found out that an opportunity has been denied to me. It is just a circumstance that occurred without malice, just an event.

I SHOULD BE THANKFUL:
I do have a lot to be thankful for, Such as:

• A loving family.
• A secure Job.
• Today I took a walk with my wife.
• I got to see my daughter play in the orchestra.
• I have good health that is excellent for a man my age.
• I live in a mostly peaceful society free from civil unrest.
• I have food, clothing, shelter, and all the basic needs.
• Money is tight but we are not penniless.

These blessings are denied to many of my fellow brothers and sisters here on earth. I know in my mind I should be filled with gratitude to the Almighty Father for the goodness I have experienced.

BUT I JUST DON'T FEEL THANKFUL.
Though I should be filled with gratitude I am not. Instead I keep saying, "Oh, why did that opportunity vanish? Why am I not getting ahead?" I keep thinking about what I wanted and how it is denied me. I spiral down and think of other lost opportunities, and failings in my life. This mindset feeds itself on itself and grows more gloomy and dark.

WHY?
I focus on the bad. I keep thinking on the negative. It is human nature.

MY CURE:
I do not know what works for other people but for me I know if I make a concerted effort to focus on the good my outlook improves. The Bible is full of commands and teaching that we should give thanks. Thankfulness has to be taught and commanded because left to ourselves we are not going to be thankful. That is just the way we are.

I can make list of things to be thankful for, I can say prayers of thanksgiving and send expressions of gratitude to those who have been a blessing to me. I am sure those strategies will help but I need power to energize change.

THE POWER TO CHANGE:
Humans do not have a thankful nature, but when we find salvation in Jesus he puts his Spirit in our hearts and by the power of the Spirit we are changed into new creatures- change will happen.

To know more about how Jesus can change you life follow this link: Salvation.