Tag: thankful

Posted on

A New Year is a Great Time To Get Started

Let’s pause for a moment to think about what the term “the body of Christ” means. The people of the church across the world constitute “the body of Christ,” but what does that mean?

Think of the average human body. It has two arms, two legs, a brain, a mouth, etc. Each part of the body plays a role. Some of those roles are more visible (a pastor, for example). Others are less prominent, but are still important to glorifying God. Volunteering to clean bathrooms in the name of Christ truly takes a servant’s heart, but isn’t a function that gains a lot of attention. Think of this as a middle toe in the body of Christ.

If you’re a Jesus-follower, you’re a part of the body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit has blessed you with talents that you’re to use for the purpose of glorifying God. For some people, their calling is obvious. If teaching from the Bible comes very naturally to you, it’s probably not terribly difficult to see the direction you should go (the particulars may be a mystery, but the broad strokes aren’t). For others it may not be so clear cut. If you absolutely excel at being a business leader or entrepreneur, it may be confusing to try and see how to glorify God using your God-given talents. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to start a God-focused business. It might mean exactly that, but it could also mean that you should use your talents to run a successful business using God-honoring business practices in order to fill a need that’s not being addressed. Maybe it means that God commissioned you to make a boatload of money that can then be used for His glory. My point is that whatever you are naturally good at should be one of the ways you make an effort to glorify God.

Many of us are glad to see 2020 pass into the history books, but what impact will you make on the year 2021? What is it that you’re here to give, to achieve, for the glory of Christ? Maybe you don’t have something specific in mind, but then again maybe you do. Don’t let the fact that you lack a vision of the final product hold you back from starting the endeavor. About two and a half years ago I started getting a vague picture in my mind. I knew I had a lot of unique experiences, and I knew that I had a knack for writing. I could put them together somehow, but I wasn’t sure what that would look like…a book of some kind? How do I consistently write about my experiences in a way that doesn’t come across as, well, being “me-centric,” but instead honors Christ?

The truth is, this effort is still evolving. Even now I don’t know what the end version will look like. What comes naturally to me is writing about things I’ve observed or done and putting a Godly spin on it. Over and over it comes back to the same thing: I want to encourage people to reach their full potential in Christ, but I need to be flexible about how God actually does that through my efforts. The important thing is that, even if it’s not perfect, I’m pursuing the thing I feel called to do. This is my 150th post, and I still have tons of ideas about future posts. This blog is not wildly successful in terms of a vast readership, but I believe it honors God, and I think many times God wants to see actual obedience before He opens doors to new possibilities or additional responsibilities for His followers. He wants to see you move from “I would” to “I’m doing.” Lots of Christians say “sure, I would do that if I felt God wanted me to,” but I imagine a much smaller percentage say “I think I’m called to do this, and it’s time for me to step out.”

I love it when people make that leap into the unknown, and I want to encourage you to make the jump. Just a word to help buck you up…some of the people that start this process are successful right away. For the vast majority, this is not the case. There will be some struggle, some personal cost, and some frustration when seeing someone else’s quick success. I understand why you may feel that way, but don’t lose sight of the goal and start thinking that lack of quick success translates into a valid excuse for quitting.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

God put you where you are, He gave you talents and resources, and He wants you to follow through when He tells you which direction to go. Sometimes it will be close to home, other times it will require leaving the comfort and familiarity of your surroundings.

To close today’s post, I’d like to provide a quote from the movie “The Ghost and the Darkness.” In a scene where the main character, John, is conflicted about leaving his pregnant wife to embark on an exciting trip to a far-flung place in order to build an important bridge for his job, his wife helps put him at ease about leaving at a terrible time for their family life. In light of today’s post, it’s a quote that applies to us all, and I hope you’ll apply it in your life.

“You build bridges, John. You have to go where the rivers are.”

This world will crumble and it will get darker, and that provides the Body of Christ with more opportunities to shine brighter. May we all be ready and willing to go where we’re called in order to do God’s work in 2021 and beyond!

Posted on

A Very Merry Christmas to One and All!

Just a quick post this week, and an early one so you’re not getting extra emails on Christmas Eve!

Jesus let us know that we’d have trouble in this world. It’s a given.

His entry into the world, however, marked a milestone that would change our relationship with the Creator, and ultimately overshadow the trouble we have in this life.

I’m very thankful for that!

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. – Luke 2:14

Merry Christmas to you all!

Posted on

Early Thanksgiving Greetings!

I’m doing an early post this week so I’m not posting on Thanksgiving morning.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ordinarily I’m pretty boogery about decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but this year is different. The year 2020 needs some good news, so we’ve already got some decorations up, even before Turkey Day. (This includes a “Thanksgiving Tree” that’s dressed with colorful Thanksgiving-themed decorations.)

For a lot of folks, the 2020 version of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years probably looks a little abnormal. There are probably a lot of curtailed or scaled back celebrations.

Thanksgiving for one…

Even so, don’t let that stop you from being thankful to our Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. This has been an unquestionably difficult year, not just here in the United States, but around the world. Praise the Lord for the blessings you’ve been given and for the things that have been entrusted to you.

On my end, I’m thankful that you’re reading this. I have a lot of crazy stories, along with what I believe to be some good Christian insight, but I’m not the most extroverted guy, so I’m thankful I’ve found a venue by which to share some thoughts that hopefully encourage you to move toward living a life that’s full of the power of the Holy Spirit…the life God intended for you to live. You might be a regular reader of DareGreatlyNow posts, or this could be the first and only post you’ll ever read from this site. Whatever the case, I’m grateful you’ve chosen to dedicate a few minutes to reading this, and I thank you for it.

Our world is hurting, and it needs hope. Christ is that hope, but you’re the one carrying the message. You are uniquely equipped to glorify God, and I urge you to use your interests, talents, and resources to do it in a way that is uniquely you, and at the same time wholly God-honoring.

This Thanksgiving, may the Lord be praised, and may you celebrate God’s blessings in your life!

Posted on

If You Just Need a Smile

You know, considering everything that’s going on in our nation right now, I just kind of feel like it would be a good idea to try to help you smile.

I’ve got three kids, and they’ve each got their own distinct personality. When they were little and they did something cute or funny, we’d write it down in what we now refer to as “the quote book.” It’s full of little stories or fun quotes that came from the kids or the sleep-deprived things that we did as parents of young kiddos. Now that it’s at least a few years after some of the quotes, our kids enjoy when I pull out the book and relay some stories we’ve written down.

Lately I’ve been taking a look through the book, and thought I’d share a few entries with you. Just for context, I’ve got a daughter, then a son, then another daughter.

My older daughter used to pick the most inopportune times to tell us about her day. When you have multiple young kids in the house, life is a blur. There’s not a whole lot of conscious thought that extends out past the next meal or bedtime. The minutes leading up to dinner were a mad rush of “go potty,” “okay, who still needs to wash their hands?” all while getting hot food on the table and scooping out some of the hot food early so it can cool off enough for the kids. Right as we sat down and things got quiet enough to pray, our daughter would pick that moment to start telling all of us about some event from earlier that day that was memorable in her mind. We’d all sit around the table, holding hands, about to pray but unable to begin. We could’ve shushed her, but…that just didn’t seem right. Then, just as she finished recounting her tale, but before we could jump in and start praying, her spellbound little brother would ask a question about her epic yarn. (“Nooooo!!!”) This happened at bedtime on a regular basis, too.

She could also open “childproof” caps before she could put together a complete sentence. We kept them away from her for awhile, and she lost the knack for it, but it still kept us on our toes.

She could also open “childproof” caps before she could put together a complete sentence. We kept them away from her for awhile, and she lost the knack for it, but it still kept us on our toes.

My little guy was the craziest blend of sweet and sour. He had heart-melting moments when you just couldn’t believe how compassionate or kind he was, and he’d have moments that make you want to pull out your hair. When he was little enough that he still slept in a crib, there was a time when my wife and I were laying him down and he saw his favorite little stuffed dog laying in the crib waiting for him, and my little guy let out a giggle. It made me appreciate how wonderful it must be to laugh simply because you’re happy.

On the flip side of his personality, there were other times he’d just utter blatant, unprompted lies. If he said “I don’t have anything in my mouth,” it’s a solid bet he just got into some snacks that he knew he wasn’t supposed to touch. He also knew that naptimes were for napping, but he loved to get up and look out the window. As he got big enough to come downstairs on his own after a nap, he’d reassure us by seeing us and saying right away “I wasn’t looking out my window.” The stool near the disheveled curtains suggested otherwise.

It’s also fun to look through the book and find little exchanges like when he and I were watching the winter Olympics on TV together when he was probably about 3. During a ski-jumping event, I told him “That guy’s from Norway.” He looked at the screen, interested, and said “Oh, is that his home planet?”

There are some slapstick memories, too. Parenting is a full-contact sport. All of our kids enjoyed when my wife and I read books to them. My younger daughter, when she was a toddler, had no concept of causing pain in other people. If I was laying on the floor and said to her “do you want me to read a book?”…man, I’d better watch out. She’d take off and find a book to read, which was great, but on her return trip, I needed to keep my gloves up. She’d come bouncing back at me in a full-speed toddler waddle, holding the book out in front of her. In the beginning, I figured she’d slow down as she got close. Nope. She came running with her arms stretched out in front of her, and she didn’t stop until she slammed me in the head with the book. (It didn’t take me long to learn to pay attention when she came running with a book, though I think it took me longer than it should have.)

This is the same little one who, when I held her in church during the live music, would watch intently everything going on up on stage. One time everything was quiet as the worship leader prayed, but my little girl kept her eyes open and was mesmerized by all the light reflecting off the shiny instruments. During the prayer, when her face was about six inches away from mine, she let slip a little burp that smelled like Cheerios.

Also, as our third child, she’s the only one I’ve used a dust-buster on.

And finally, to cap it off, here’s a story with all three. There was a phase (at least, I hope it’s a phase) where my older daughter liked to over-dramatize things, so she’d pretend to cry at certain things. The problem was that anytime my younger daughter saw someone cry, she thought it was her cue to start apologizing, even if it wasn’t her fault or she didn’t know what was happening. She’d keep doing it until someone acknowledged her, too, and would get louder as she went. Making it more fun was the fact that she couldn’t pronounce an “r” sound very well at that age. There was one instance where I sat in the living room and my wife and all three kids were in the kitchen. My wife and older daughter started acting silly, and began pretending to cry about something. Right around then my son, who needed to hear the same thing three times before it started sinking in, got hyper and did something he shouldn’t have, which distracted my wife. Imagine the sound of fake crying from one daughter, my wife talking firmly to my little guy, and an ever-more-persistent little voice saying “sowwy. Sowwy! SOWWY!”

You know, despite what you see on TV, there’s still some good stuff going on out there. Despite what you may see and hear, there are some good people in the world. Keep your chin up and keep smiling, because like I’ve said before, your joy and positive attitude in Christ is one of the things that will make people take notice, especially in times like this.

Need some encouragement? Pass along this post and subscribe today for a once-a-week email.

Posted on

Is It Worth That?

Imagine if someone offered you the chance to live for two weeks with two other people in an area about the size of three or four phone booths.

Before you answer, hold on a minute. It gets worse.

Courtesy of OhioMemory.org

It’s a closed environment, so nothing extra comes in, and no garbage goes out. All the food you’ll be eating during that time needs to be freeze-dried and packed inside. It’s not modern day freeze-dried food, either; it’s like, 1960s freeze-dried food. Add water, stir, and eat. Want to eat it hot? Add hot water.

On top of that, there’s no bathroom. You’ve got a little suction tube for liquid waste and you’ve got some bags for solid waste. Not a great deal of privacy, either.

What do you think, are you in?

Of course not. Why would anyone in their right mind sign up for that?

Now what if I told you that if you can endure these conditions, you get to walk on the moon?

From 1968 to 1972, the American space program sent a series of missions into space that resulted in 12 men walking on the moon and returning safely to earth. Would you be willing to endure the cramped quarters and terrible conditions if you could look forward to setting foot on the lunar surface?

That paints things in a different light, doesn’t it? Life is largely the same for a Christian; the main difference is that instead of two weeks, we’re looking at 80 or maybe 90 years or so.

This life has some fun times, and it has some miserable times. The older you get, the more you understand the temporary nature of things on this earth, and the more you realize that everything around you will one day turn to dust or otherwise become worthless. The joy, however, comes in knowing that you’re on your way to a destination of unspeakable happiness, where you come face to face with God Himself and can ask Him everything you’ve ever wondered about, you can praise Him with no distractions, and you can rejoice in the fact that nobody who’s there will suffer pain, heartache, or loss ever again.

The longest time of any Apollo mission that astronauts spent on the surface of the moon was during the final mission, Apollo 17. Two astronauts spent about 75 hours…a little over three days…either in the Lunar Module or out on the surface of the moon. That whole mission lasted about twelve and a half days from start to finish. Twelve and a half days in cramped quarters eating nasty food in exchange for 75 hours and three moonwalks on the moon.

In a Christian’s case, unspeakable joy that doesn’t end alongside your Savior in a body that doesn’t decay. That’s worth 80 or 90 years, even if a good percentage of them get rough.

Better times are coming. Hang in there.

Enjoying DareGreatlyNow’s posts? Let me know what you think. Email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.

Posted on

Pray With Fury

Have you ever been so mentally or physically worn out that you can’t even take care of yourself?

Emotionally wrung out, physically depleted, and/or mentally exhausted people have a difficult time performing all but the most basic of functions. If they’re providing care for someone else while in this state, they’re certainly not taking proper care of themselves.

In these situations it can be extraordinarily difficult to have any prayer life to speak of, save for a singular focus. I’ve heard the term “intercessory prayer” for a long time, but only recently heard it described as praying on someone else’s behalf because they are either unable or unwilling to do it themselves.

To look at it another way, you might be the only person with the ability to address a certain issue through prayer.

There’s a special family in Northern Virginia whose little girl, Molly, developed a condition in the womb that resulted in her being born with some of her internal organs on the outside of her body. Now 7 years old, last week Molly went into surgery after months of preparatory procedures aimed at moving those organs inside her body. Initially things looked good, but as time went on, Molly’s heart and lungs had a very difficult time adapting to the increased pressure of having not only the organs moved inside her abdominal cavity, but the added pressure of swelling due to surgery. It’s been a very fluid situation since the process first began over a week ago, and at times it seemed doubtful that this sweet little girl would make it through the night. Molly, her parents, and her medical team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have been forced to contend with countless complications that cast a heavy fog over the path that would bring her back from the brink.

Imagine sending your little girl back for surgery, and you and your spouse await word from the surgeons to find out how it went. During the surgery, a nurse comes hurrying out of the operating room, only to return a short time later with a cooler containing blood for transfusing, and your daughter’s name is printed on it. Then later they bring in still more blood for her. In the first 18 hours after her initial surgery started, Molly required 40 units of blood. In the days that followed, her medical team had to advocate on her behalf in order to convince the hospital to allow Molly access to its critical reserve of blood products.

Molly in her room (Photo courtesy of “Molly’s Belly Blog”)

In all of this, Molly’s parents are staying with a host family during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Their little girl has undergone half a dozen surgeries since the first one, some of which focused on unexpected areas of her body that were fine before she went under. Molly simply wouldn’t stop bleeding, her blood pressure wouldn’t come up enough, and the clotting and blood pressure medication the team administered robbed her extremities of oxygen.

Her parents, while obviously prayerful for their daughter’s life, are exhausted, separated from their other daughter, and dealing with a situation that changes often. In the week following the initial surgery there’s been much more bad news than good, and if you’re prone to worry, there’s been much to worry about. Molly and her parents are simply unable to pray for everything that needs to be brought to God and still function on a day-to-day basis.

That’s where we come in. As it became evident that the surgery had not worked as planned and that Molly’s life was in a precarious state, people began praying by the hundreds. These people, from around the globe, have covered this family in prayer 24 hours a day.

About a week into the ordeal, Molly turned a corner and began to improve. It’s still not clear what the outcome will be, but at this point there are literally thousands of people praying on behalf of Molly and her family, lifting them up in constant prayer. This little girl, whose life at times seemed to be hanging by a thread, has to date received a whopping 150 units of blood.

Acutely aware of just how precious a resource available blood is, the family found a way to tap in to the desire of everyone that wanted to help the family. After forming “Team Ingram” on a Red Cross app, the family requested that volunteers donate blood in Molly’s name. In just 24 hours, Team Ingram jumped into the top 1% of blood-donation groups, replenishing many times over the amount of blood used in Molly’s treatment so far, and potentially saving many other lives in the process.

Although I’m sure there were numerous “passing prayers” or quick prayers uttered in half a breath for Molly, there have collectively been many hours of deliberate prayer on behalf of her and her family. Some of this was intentional, focused prayer pleading with the Lord for Molly’s life. She’s still here, but still needs persistent prayer. God still listens to the prayers of His people. I don’t know how all this will end, but the targeted prayers focused on specific topics seem to have moved Molly in the right direction. All glory and honor belong to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Graphic courtesy of “Molly’s Belly Blog”

If you’d like to follow along with Molly’s saga and add your prayer (or blood donation) support to her and her family, please request to join the “Molly’s Belly Blog” or watch this YouTube video of her story…and please keep her full recovery in your prayers, because God listens to His people’s requests.

Please pass this post along to anyone you think will make an appeal to God on behalf of Molly and her family.

Posted on

I Hear What You’re Saying, But…

If I told you I’m a parent, you’d probably believe me, but it’s not the same thing as seeing evidence that I’m a parent.

I came home from work one day and saw a Frisbee on the roof over our garage. We often have misspelled words and stick figures drawn in different colors of chalk on our driveway or sidewalk. In the summertime I often see little bits of broken water balloons on our porch. Inside the house, the living room is seldom “all the way” cleaned up, even if we tell the kids to make it “Mommy and Daddy mode.”

We have kids, and there are signs of them everywhere. (It’s unquestionably a good thing, even though sometimes there are a few too many signs.)

These things, in and of themselves, are not proof that I’m a parent. To an observer though, these signs make the notion a lot more believable.

There’s something similar when it comes to Christianity. If you claim to be a Christian, yet you haven’t changed at all from the way you were before joining the faith, something’s probably not quite right.

Galations 5:22-23 describes the qualities that a Christian will develop over time. The author’s not saying that only a Christian could have these qualities, but, in the same way that the Frisbee on my roof is probably there because of a kid rather than an adult, a Christian’s life will contain signs, indicators, or evidence of the faith they’re claiming.

When someone accepts Christ, at that moment the Holy Spirit sets up shop in that person’s life. What does that mean? It means that from that moment on, God starts working on changing your attitude to be more like His. I heard someone say once that God accepts you for who you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.

My mom used to have a tee shirt with a three-by-three grid on it. Inside each box was a picture of some kind of fruit, but instead of labeling them “grapes” or “watermelon,” they’d say things like “patience” and “self control.” These nine things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control) collectively make up what the Bible calls “the fruit of the Spirit.”

Having these fruits is not something that happens quickly. Fruit takes a long time to grow. You can’t put in a weekend of intensive Bible reading and prayer and have these things spring forth in your life; it takes time. The outcome of being a Christian and continuously pursuing a relationship with Christ is a life that is characterized by these nine fruits.

Consider taking a closer look at these traits. Is there one (or several) that you’d like to develop or increase in your walk with Christ?

Happy birthday Mom! Love ya!

Posted on

Bride of Christ

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s often viewed as a time to pause and reflect on the “special-ness” of the important people in your life.

While the celebration of love is nice, our culture seems to have adopted the idea that “anything goes” in the name of love, and that finding true love means everything after that point will be perfect. Love stories end with the main characters living “happily ever after.” The unfortunate fact is that taking two imperfect people and placing them in a relationship will always yield less-than-perfect results. Sadly, many committed relationships crumble despite the noble intentions of those involved.

People who have known great heartache can therefore best appreciate the idea of a love that will not fail.

In Bible times, weddings worked a little differently from the way they do today. Back then when a couple became engaged, the groom-to-be departed to make preparations for the wedding, their living arrangements, and their future together. The bride-to-be remained with her family while this took place, and she waited for the groom while he made preparations. Without texts, emails, or any other expedient form of communication, she would have to wait and be perpetually ready for her groom to show up and whisk her away to their wedding and new life together. Imagine not only having no input on the details of your own wedding, but also being left completely in the dark about when it would even take place!

This is the situation where we currently find ourselves. We’re waiting, and we don’t know for how long. In my last post I wrote a bit about the importance of the Church. The Church is sometimes referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Jesus has gone on ahead to make preparations, but He fully intends to return for us, the Church:

…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2c-3.

Now that’s a kind of love we can celebrate.

Like in Bible times, we receive very little information about the details of when the Bridegroom is planning to come back. Even though we live in an era of instant gratification, lack of a specific date on the calendar actually changes very little about what’s important in this case. It’s important to remember that while waiting, we are to remain faithful and we are to remain ready, no matter how long it takes. It is imperative that we watch with expectation and with anticipation, ever on the lookout for when our Lord will make His return and escort us to a deeper phase of our relationship with Him.

The question is…have you stopped making yourself ready? You know in your mind that He’ll come someday, but it probably won’t be anytime soon, right? I mean, it’s been about 2,000 years since Christ walked the earth; what are the odds that He’ll come during this lifetime?

What you decide to do is up to you, but I’ll pose one last question to you today. Are you living faithfully for the one to whom you are betrothed?

Posted on

Divine Appointments

My wife is a wonderful woman. Not only does she take care of our kiddos and I, she also pours into the lives of many of the women she knows.

At any given time she has at least one friend that’s going through heartbreaking circumstances or challenges, and she tries to help them in various ways. One weekday at church she was the lead for her class’s Bible study, which was a source of stress for her in terms of preparation and delivering the material. Though the class itself went well, another woman she knew sought her out afterward, and it resulted in a conversation that required a lot of mental energy and focus. It wasn’t a bad encounter, but it added to the stress of a particularly draining day. By the time she left church with our preschool-aged daughter, she just wanted to get home and do something that didn’t require any thought or energy, but she knew our little girl would want to read some books or play pretend with some of her toys.

Mentally exhausted and physically worn out, she arrived home to see that I had come home early for a dental appointment, and was just about to leave. Instead of driving right from work to the dentist, I came home first because I wanted to change clothes so I could run an errand after the dentist. My daughter got excited and wanted to go with me because the last time she went with me to the dentist, one of the assistants had allowed her to pick a toy out of the little treasure chest, just for tagging along. Well, that sounded good to everyone, so my little sidekick and I drove off.

My wife came inside to a quiet house and collapsed on the couch. Before long she thought of something she needed to do online. She picked up our laptop and went to turn it on, but the battery was dead. Taking this as a sign, she put it back down and closed her eyes for just a few moments. She ended up getting a half hour of much-needed quiet…an opportunity that would not have happened if our daughter stayed home and if the laptop’s battery had any life in it.

People often forget this, but the God of the big things is God of the little things, too. Foreseeing this need, God laid the groundwork for that day. There were at least three separate things that needed to happen in order for these conditions to exist for my wife. I don’t remember what errand I intended to run after the dentist, but God worked it out that instead of going right from work to the dentist, I first came home to change clothes. In addition to that, I don’t know how long before that day my daughter came with me to the dentist, but somehow God set up the circumstances for that previous visit so that I was home and took my little girl with me and she got a toy, conditioning her to want to go again the next time. Similarly, however we used the laptop the day before (or the morning of) the Bible study resulted in a dead battery by the time my wife arrived home.

It’s as if God says “if you follow me and work for me, you’re going to have hard times, but I’m going to take care of you.” Never forget that God is sovereign; there is nothing He can’t control. When you’re living in His will, He goes before you and “plows the road” ahead of you to get you where He wants you to be. On the flip side, if you’re not living in His will, there will probably be times when it seems like there hasn’t been one particularly difficult challenge, but you feel like you’re expending a lot of energy just to accomplish something minor.

So, especially during this busy season, remember: the God of the big things is God of the little things, too.

Posted on

It’s All About Perspective

(Programming note: In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, I’m switching up this week’s posting schedule. Next week will be back to Thursday.)

When my kids were very young, like a lot of kids, they were pretty self-centered. This wasn’t a surprise; when any child’s world is still very small, they naturally think of themselves as the center of the universe.

My wife and I found a way to start breaking them out of that thought process. Every night at bedtime, we started doing what we call “Thankful Hearts.” We’d each say a few things for which we were thankful. My wife and I started out with some examples. We might say something like “I’m thankful we had enough food to eat today, I’m thankful you didn’t get hurt worse when you fell down today, and I’m thankful our house is keeping us warm and dry while it’s rainy and cold outside.”

It took a little adjustment for them, but over time our kids began focusing less on their “I wants” and more on their “I already haves.” This roundabout way of counting their blessings helped our kids understand that it’s a special thing to have enough when others don’t. That type of security allows people to turn their focus outward; instead of our kids’ prayer requests sounding like a Christmas list for items they wanted for themselves, they soon began bringing their requests to God on behalf of the needs of others.

In a world where every commercial or advertisement you watch, read, or hear tries to convince you that what you already have is inadequate, it’s easy to become dissatisfied. That’s the goal of advertising. It’s also easy to get caught in the whole “keep up with the Joneses” mentality. Don’t forget though, especially as we head into Christmas season, to be thankful for the areas of your life where you already have “enough,” especially if you’re assured of your salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thankfulness of that eternal assurance allows you to be confident and enables you to turn your focus outward and share the good news with those who, in that sense, aren’t as blessed as you are.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. Psalm 9:1-2

Happy Thanksgiving!