Once you start it's hard to stop!

Good morning and welcome to Friday, April 3, 2009 where I am working on doing my best to have an attitude of gratitude and that's what is on my agenda for today's share time. In my thirty minute drive in this morning I attempted to construct my entire prayer time around thanking God for everything I could think of that I am privileged to be a recipient of in the life He has given to me. It started with thanking Him for being able to come into His presence with my prayers because of the finished work of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I thanked Him for providing His Spirit to inhabit my life to lead, guide, and direct my way. I thanked Him for the blessings of life, my family, my Church family, my friends, and essentially began to name them one by one. I thanked Him for His provision of the daily supply for the food, shelter, and other necessary items needed to function. I thanked Him for the ministry opportunities He has given, the gift He has placed in me and the way in which He works through me to accomplish His purposes. I thanked Him for the contributions made by so many in my past that has helped to bring me to where I am today. I especially thanked Him for my wife and companion over all these years and the treasure she is to me. I thanked Him for the enjoyment I am privileged to experience in the work I do, the activities I pursue, and in the living out of my life.

I also thanked Him for the tough times. I thanked Him for the times when He intervened to get my attention. These were times when it wasn't pleasant but He was still there with me every step of the way. I thanked Him for the dad I missed out on knowing but acknowledged that He knew best in charting the plan for my life. I of course thanked Him for my heritage of faith, my mom, my step dad, my grandparents, my mother and father-in-law, my siblings, my aunts and uncles, cousins, my in-laws, and so many other Church men and women, teachers, supervisors, co-workers, and other folks that have exerted effort on my behalf. I thanked Him for my grandchildren and the joy they bring to me both when I am with them and just thinking about them. I thanked Him for my three boys and how they have become close to me and the fact that we communicate every day. Wow! I am a man blessed beyond measure. No, not in the prosperity being preached on television but in ways much deeper and richer than I could have ever hoped for or dreamed. The Apostle Paul instructed the Church at Thessalonica and by extension to all believers that they would "In everything give thanks!" My recommendation is like the old Alka-Seltzer commercial, "Try it, you'll like it!" That's right. Try counting up all the blessings God has given to you including the very next breath you breathe and as you thank Him, your very life, your attitude and your altitude, will be changed. Now that my friend is a good way to get a running start on enjoying your Saturday and preparing to meet with other believers on Lord's Day Sunday. Until next time, as Roy Rogers used to say: "May the good Lord take a liking to you!" Amen. .....More later.