‘A grateful heart is one that finds the countless blessings of God in the seemingly mundane everyday life.’

The key word in this quote to me is ‘mundane.’ We all know (sort of) what ‘mundane’ means, but I thought it would be interesting to see what Dictionary.com offered in a way of an exact definition. Mundane is defined as: lacking interest or excitement; dull; routine; ordinary.

It’s easy to say ‘I’m blessed’ when a job promotion or a new child or grand baby comes along. But, you might be asking, where are the ‘countless blessings’ in a dull, ordinary day. Well, let me reel off eight or 10 quick blessings and you can take it from there. Blessing one, you woke up this morning … then in no particular order — the bed you slept in, the roof over your head, you put your feet on the floor, electricity, air conditioning, coffee or caffeine, the smile of a friend or loved one, a job to go to or rest from, sunshine or rain because both are good and so you see, our blessing list really is countless. From the time you open your eyes in the morning until you close them at night … God’s countless blessings are everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart and recognize them.

God’s ‘countless blessings’ to you on this day! Have a great Saturday and a blessed day!

‘Gratitude doesn’t change the scenery, it merely washes clean the glass you look through so you can clearly see the colors.’

I read a story recently about a couple that moved to a new neighborhood. The first day they were there the young wife noticed a neighbor hanging out clothes to dry. She commented that the clothes didn’t look very clean.

“Either she doesn’t know how to wash clothes properly or she’s using the wrong laundry detergent,” she commented.

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Each time the neighbor would hang out the wash the young woman made the same comment, each time with a little more scorn in her voice. Then one morning a few weeks later the woman expressed her surprise at how bright and clean her neighbor’s wash looked. “She must have bought different laundry soap or somebody finally taught her how to wash clothes,” she said.

Her husband replied: “I got up early this morning and washed the window you’ve been looking through.’

And such is the case with life — what we see while watching others depends on how clean the window is we’re looking through.

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a great Friday, a blessed day and be sure and wash your ‘window.’

‘Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life changing.’

The ‘attitude of gratitude’ – those three little words roll off the tongue easily, don’t they? But practicing an attitude of gratitude is easier said than done. The few thoughts on this subject that I share today are not just words, but instead they come from a personal experience over the past few months. I was faced with a situation (work-related) that was very difficult but instead of grumbling and griping I developed an attitude of gratitude. It was hard and I really had to change my mindset, but instead of feeling sorry for myself, my thought process was ‘thank you Jesus for the strength,’ ‘thank you Jesus for the endurance,’ ‘thank you Jesus for the sore muscles’ and on some days I even gave thanks for the sweat dripping off the end of my nose. Slowly, as my gratitude increased the mammoth task in front of me decreased. This went on for months and then from out of nowhere this huge, life-changing blessing just dropped in my lap.

You can believe and think what you want, but I believe I was blessed because of my ‘attitude of gratitude.’ I truly believe there is very little difference in people, but that little difference is attitude and the big difference is whether its positive or negative.

An attitude of gratitude – give it a try!

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a terrific Thursday and a blessed day!

‘Some people will always throw stones in your path, but it depends on you what you make of them. So, what will you build, a wall or a bridge?

It’s a fact that life is full of stone-throwers – those folks that seem to find joy in planting a doubt in your mind, raining on your parade or pointing out that there is a greater chance of failure than success in what you are trying to accomplish. The older I get the more I’m convinced that in order to stay positive, focused and moving forward  we have to distance ourselves and ignore negative people.

There’s an old adage that speaks volumes about this topic. It says: ‘If you hang out with chickens you’re going to cluck and if you hang out with eagles you’re going to fly.’

So, what will you build, a wall or a bridge? Negative people are a daily part of life, but don’t let the stones they throw become a wall to hinder or stop your dreams and goals. Instead, when they lob a negative stone your way use it, with God’s help, to build a positive bridge to a better life.

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a great Wednesday and a blessed day!

 

 

 

‘Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.’ — C.S. Lewis

It seems that a constant rule for people who have enjoyed success is that they simply refuse to give up. Somehow these people use setbacks, failures, obstacles, the doubts of others and the word ‘no’ as motivation to reach their goals. In short, it’s not a failure to get knocked down, failure comes when we refuse to get back up.

Have you ever had a ring of keys and you were unsure which one was the right one to unlock a door? Isn’t it uncanny how many times its the very last key that opens the door? It’s the same way with trying to reach a goal, many, many times we have to try a lot of different ‘keys’ to unlock the door to our future.

Remember, if Plan A doesn’t work … there are 25 more letters in the alphabet.

God’s blessings to you on this day!  Have a great Tuesday and a blessed day.

‘Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.’

It’s been said that worrying does not take away tomorrow’s struggles it takes away today’s strength. Did you know that the phrase ‘do not be afraid’ is written in the Bible 365 times – that’s a daily reminder from God to live each day worry-free.

I heard a speaker say recently that worrying about everything is like carrying an umbrella with you every single day — regardless of the weather — on the chance that it might rain.

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a great Monday and an even better start to the week!

‘For in him we live and breathe and have our being …’ — Acts 17:28

I recently was reading a short story and this verse was included and I like it. But, as I read on this verse was paraphrased by an unknown writer in a way that literally jumped off the page at me.

He wrote: ”Our Redeemer’s blood is the ink in the pen that writes the script for our lives.’

Maybe its because I’m a writer and I love to try and string words together to reach out to people, but I found this one short sentence remarkable. As I read it through a few times I thought of Jesus taking a crumpled, dirty piece of paper (our life) and because of the blood He shed on the cross, turning it into a bright, shining manuscript. I also thought of another quote I’ve used that says every new day is a blank piece of paper. The good news today is that Jesus hold the pen, he’s the author!

Thank you Jesus … thank you for the ‘ink in the pen’ that writes the script for our lives.

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a super Sunday and a blessed day!

 

‘Success is the sum of small efforts repeated over and over again, day in and day out.’

So, on those long and sometimes monotonous days when you think your small efforts have little or no meaning, when you feel like you are fighting a battle you can’t win, remember this quote, remember the sum of small efforts … and keep on pushing forward!

God’s blessings to you on this day, which very well might be one of those ‘day in and day out’ days that will lead to your success. Have a blessed day!

‘Every weakness you have is an opportunity for God to show his strength in your life.’

Despite what you might think, there is not a single person on the planet, not one, that doesn’t have a weakness in their life. Certainly, there are those who come off not showing a chink in their armor but you can be assured there’s one there.

While I will admit to many weaknesses, today’s quote highlights one that I face daily. I have a great platform to speak and write about my belief and trust in God through his son Jesus Christ. But oftentimes I hold back and temper what I want to say, mainly because I’ve made a multitude of mistakes in my own life and those mistakes make me feel inadequate and not worthy to speak about something as perfect as God’s love and plan of salvation.

I recently ran across a bible verse that has helped me, one of those that you find that makes you know it is tailor-made for your situation. It reads: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.’ 2 Corinthians 12:9. Think of that … God’s power made perfect in our weakness. What a wonderful promise!

God’s blessings to you on this day! Have a great Friday and a blessed day!

 

‘You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.’

You might be thinking, ‘well, I don’t have anything to ‘give’ anybody.’ Sure you do! You see, I believe the word ‘give’ in that quote means much, much more than material possessions. There are so many things we can give daily, the list is never-ending. You can give your time to call a friend going through a difficult time, to listen to that friend, a smile, a pat on the back, a hug or even just a kind word. You can smile at a stranger, hold the door for somebody you don’t know or pay it forward and buy lunch for somebody you don’t know. Sometimes even the smallest gesture can change a person’s entire outlook that day. And maybe the kindness you show is the only good thing that will happen to that person that day, or that week. The amazing thing, while you are helping somebody else, you are also helping yourself more than you will ever know.
We all get so caught up trying to making a ‘living’ … but my prayer today is that we all try to find a few minutes each day to make a ‘life’ and give something back.

God’s blessings to you this day! Have a great Thursday and a blessed day.