Thankfulness is an ATTITUDE!!

Well....when was the last time that you took a step back from the busyness of your day and looked at everything that surrounds you and had a Spirit of Thankfulness?  For instance, Today, when you woke up and took a shower.....well let's hope that you took a shower!!!  But, Seriously, you turned a tap and water came out...you hit a light switch and electricity happened and a light came on.....you had clothes to put on.....you had a church to go to (hopefully)....you probably rode in a vehicle of some sort.....it most likely had AC.....you probably had at least two meals today....AND you probably were able to use indoor plumbing on different levels throughout the day.....and you are reading this on a computer over the Internet. 

Take a look at that list above.  I realize that there are many things that could have gone on here, but you get the point.  We have SOOOOOO much to be THANKFUL for.  We have so much to give God praise for.  We have so much to appreciate the life that God has given you.  You have family, friends, running water, electricity, transportation, clothes, food and the list can go on and on.  Compared to app. 75-80% of the world we are truly blessed beyond what we actually realize. 

I really think that when we look at our lives through the right vision we will realize that we are most of the time far from THANKFUL.  This happens more and more because we are so distracted by our busy lives, our schedules, our activities and most likely we just don't think about some of these things at all.  We just know that when we turn the tap the water will come on...when we hit that switch the lights will come on....push the remote and the t.v with cable will turn on.  We really don't think about the reality that we are blessed!  And, because we are blessed we should be THANKFUL....ALWAYS!

Sunday we came home from church and walked into the house to eat an amazing lunch and relax.  Went to turn on the t.v. and then there it was.....the cable was off!!!!  Yikes!  So, to the computer to check the WWW.....and then Whamo!!! it was off as well!!!! double Yikes!  Now what do we do??  You see this is when it hit me....we expect the "luxuries" of life just to be there and when they are not.....YIKES!  What would we do with the time during the day...to be honest I sat there looking at the blue screen thinking....any minute now...any minute now.  No luck!  It was literally about 6 hours until life returned to "normal" or life as we knew it before.  During that period of "Now what do we do" we watched a movie together as a family...we played cards together and just interacted more than usual.  To be honest here (after all that is the point of this whole thing) I did try to escape to the bedroom for a quick nap.....Andrea found me and I was caught in the act...so I sluggishly joined the reindeer games again......Glad I did...Mia and me had a chance to play Phase 10 together and shared a few laughs...I did cheat (after all I cannot allow a 7 year old to beat me) But she did catch me....we laughed a lot at my attempts to not get caught.  Good times!

I find our ATTITUDES in how we approach the everyday encounters will determine who we will be.  If our ATTITUDE is wrong then nothing we encounter will mean anything to us. 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 ¹⁶ Be joyful always; ¹⁷ pray continually; ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you ask me to sum it up here is what I come up with.....
1.  Thankfulness is and ATTITUDE
2.  Thankfulness is a HABIT
3.  Thankfulness is JESUS CHRIST

When we look at all the details of our days and truly understand that we are sooooo blessed then our ATTITUDES of THANKFULNESS will become a HABIT and it is all because of JESUS CHRIST!

I learned that I need to be more THANKFUL for everything that Jesus has given me....and to be honest again I sometimes find myself going through the motions of life and have to catch myself and remember that Thankfulness is an ATTITUDE.....and sometimes the little things like the cable and Internet going off bring you back into reality that the things that matter most are always right there in front of you...but most of the time we look past them and remain busy.

Take a step back and make a little list of ALL the things that you have and remember to give Thanks for everything.

Be Joyful, pray always and give thanks wherever it is that God has placed you. 

THANKFULNESS is an ATTITUDE!!!!!!

WORD!