Taken from May 11th entry of A Daybook of Grace. ”Which comes first–the gift, or the spirit of thanksgiving?  Common wisdom says that we get the gift first, then we say thank you for receiving it.  While that is true, some gifts will never be recognized or received without a spirit of thanksgiving.

“How many people sabotage the blessings in their life because of the crummy attitude?  They are dissatisfied and disappointed–and let the world know it–despite a plethora of gifts from God and others all around them.

“All of us can be thankful for the many things God has done for us.  But there may be deeper levels of spirituality–even more of His nature and goodness–that we can experience through the attitude of gratitude.  Have you said thank you to God today?”

It is so easy to focus on only those things we feel disappointed about, wish could be different or eliminated from our lives.  We let the negative stuff overwhelm all the good in our lives and as a result appear to be ungrateful for all the good we seem to take for granted.  Is it any wonder why life keeps throwing annoying little rocks at our windows?  When we focus on the minor irritations of life we shift our focus to only the negative.  Guess what keeps coming back in our lives —the negative.  There isn’t one human being walking this earth where there isn’t something that could be made even more perfect.  If we all walk around with visible scowls on our faces than none of the beautiful surrounding, none of the beauty of the music and song of the birds, none of the fragrance of the flowers of life will be appreciated by us.

We each individually make the decision to focus on the irritations –the imperfections of life or refocus our attention to the beauty and the good around us.  Taking it a step further and thanking God for the life He has given us is the only way we are going to change the crummy attitude that we’ve allowed to prevail our lives.  Do you want more joy in your life.  Then stop complaining, appreciate the beauty of your surroundings, and thank God for all you have in your life (even those irritations).  Through the attitude of gratitude will you change the mindset and the visuals you are currently living with.  Ever wonderful about those folks that always seem to be perpetually happy?  It’s not because they lives are easier then yours.  It’s because they made the decision to focus on the good, the positive and on gratitude vs. staying stuck in the mud puddle they might have originally been in.

When we claim to be good Christians, but we speak badly of others, we gossip or condemn those that don’t act or look like us – it is in complete violation of that faith.  I don’t want to see the bumper stickers — bumper stickers are cheap.  I want to see how kind your actions are towards others.  I want to see what you are willing to give up in time for volunteering or money to give to someone who is need.  I want to see the actions that Jesus himself exemplified to show us how we should live our lives. 

If you think that by attending a Sunday (or Saturday) service and carrying a bible around is what makes you a good solider of Christ I’ve got some sad news for you.  This doesn’t really cut it for God.  He wants to see you live your everyday life as someone who is walking the walk.  If Jesus stood by you and watched every action you took, listened to everything you had to say, would HE be proud of how you handled yourself?  Or would you be embarrassed by some of your own words and actions?  You may not be able to see Him at your side — but I got news for you — He is there watching and observing everything you are doing and saying.  He watches EVERYTHING!  I believe that if we lived our lives with the thought that we are being watched by our Lord in everything we do — how much greater would our lives be.  If we lived without the false lies we tell, if we lived our lives without the questionable decisions we make that we try to hide from others, if we lived our lives as if GOD was watching we would have nothing to be ashamed about.  We would be living in total integrity.  We’d have greater peace of mind.  We might even start living without the stresses of life.  We create those stressful periods because we are not living in integrity. 

I would challenge you to take just one 24 hour period and pretend that you have God sitting right next to you the entire time.  Consciously go about your day with the Lord watching and hearing everything you are doing during that period.  See if your life doesn’t start to change for the better by just those 24 hours of living in true faith.

“I give up attachment to pain and anger in order for me to enjoy a better life.  I give up judgement or criticism of my own past actions for the freedom to live in loving ways.

“I am willing to forgive a past occurrence, realizing that to hold on to the past only hurts me.  I release unforgiving thoughts and replace them with love.  Even situations I will never condone, I am able to forgive.

“I forgive myself and others so I can focus my energy on creating a more peaceful, harmonious world.”

These are the words taken from the April 18th daily devotional called the Daily Word.  I felt that the definition of “forgive” was so right-on.  To allow ourselves to have true peace of mind is to “let go” of the resentments, the scars of preceived injury, and to let the past leave our current thinking.  We replay the injuries we feel have been done to us over and over and over in our minds.  We seem to relish in the pain and the sense of righteous indignation that these hurtful scenarios continue to keep our psychic scars alive.  It’s like picking at a scar we refuse to allow to heal.  The “healing” balm is forgiveness.  Without forgiving these scars will never go away.   It’s almost as if we doom ourselves to forever living in the pain.  The problem with not allowing a “scar heal” is that it eventually leads to serious infection and possibility a more serious health problem.  So it is with resentments with the psychic pain.  These resentments will manifest into greater health issues later in life.  Add all this past baggage to your daily stress and its a perfect ingredient for more serious issues.

What we deny ourselves when we don’t forgive — is peace of mind.  With peace of mind comes authentic joy.  The question you must ask yourself is this:  What do I value more?  My anger and resentment or peace of mind?  It’s your choice and ONLY YOUR choice.

Possessions and wealth come in and go.  All material things lose their shine and sometimes even their value in our eyes over time.  No amount of money can replace the fond memories of close friends.  Yet, it seems that for all the importance our friends have in our lives we sometimes don’t provide them with a tremendous amount of time or appreciation.  We sometimes assume our friends will always be there for us.  They will be around for when we finally find a moment to give a call or to meet up for a long needed break together.  How sad that sometimes those periods can be years in the passing.  When was the last time you made a conscious effort to call your dearest friend to arrange some time together? 

It doesn’t matter that you “tweet” or you post a facebook message to your “friends” on line.  None of that artificial relationship building compares to the face to face encounter you desparately need to rekindle a real friendship.  We need to feel the warmth of our friends arms around us in that hug that conveys our affection and love for the person.  We need to hear our friend’s voice to really understand their feelings about what is going on in their lives that only their voice can convey.  We need to look into their eyes to see what may be troubling or giving joy to your friend when they speak of what is important in their life.  Friends convey their honest feelings to each other only when this face to face communication is allowed to be expressed.  These are the times that constitute the glue in a relationship.

Take a moment to think about that person you consider a real and loving friend and make the decision to call them.  Decide to arrange a visit to see them in the near future.  After all, life doesn’t have gurantees.  How would you feel if you got word that you lost your friend and you never got another chance to see them again.  Could you honestly say you had all the time your wanted with your friend?  Or would you want “just one more time” to be with them? 

“Soon afterward the largest bomb in the German arsenal hit the man’s farm.  The impact was so big that it unearthed a spring.  The spring not only amply watered his farm, but also enabled him to share water with his neighbors.  And the next year, he enjoyed an abundant harvest.  He sent a fifty-pound check to the mission as a thanksgiving offering.

“Thank God for unexpected blessings.”

This story is so telling in that we often cannot see the blessings God has in store for us when we see only the immediate “disaster” of the current events being played out in our lives.  We can’t see that what is happening now and its possible painful experiences may be leading us to an incredible new life.  A changed life with such abundance we can not even imagine it possible.  That’s how God works.  What he asks of us is to have Faith in Him and not to give up hope when it appears He has NOT answered our prayers, but in fact has put even greater pain into our lives.  Without the pain the new cannot be born.  It’s very much like childbirth.  Without the pain of birth a new small beautiful life cannot be. 

After experiencing three very difficult years of what seemed like neverending challenges, including losing my spouse, my home, my beloved pet, my thriving business and my health, the outcome has been fantastic.  I’ve never been happier.  But I also realize that I could not have gotten to where I am today without all the series of events that I had to go through to get to this amazing place.  My faith got me through all the tough times.  I could have easily chosen not to believe God was really there for me and taken a much more crooked route.  I could have chosen to drink myself into a stupor each evening.  I could have chosen to let the series of setbacks throw me into a serious state of depression.  I could have chosen to fight with filing lawsuits over what appeared to be unfair treatment.  I could have chosen a lot of other more damaging and highly toxic routes to deal with the pain of loss.  But I chose to believe God would hold me up during the complete time and circumstances I was going through – never giving up on HIM.  I can honestly say I feel God has vindicated me for all the pain I have had to go through.  Why the pain of events in the first place, you ask?  Maybe its because God needed to close those old doors to open up the new ones.  And maybe I had to be put through the test of Faith for God to know I really was completely HIS.

These are incredibly powerful words.  To wait upon the Lord.  This requires not only faith but extreme patience.  This small snippet of the Bible holds incredible truth.  You can receive anything you desire but you Must have Faith you will receive and you must wait for God to align all things up for it to happen.  The one element most people don’t realize when they have fervent specific prayer about something is that they themselves MAY NOT BE READY to receive their blessing. 

I believe we all feel like we are ready to receive the gifts of abundance that are promised to us by God.  We sit and we think I am praying, I am believing but nothing is happening!  Dear reader, when this happens you need to look deep within yourself and examine what may be blocking your good from coming to you.  It may be that someone or something needs be forgiven by you, or in your heart you need to ask for their forgiveness.  It could be that deep down inside you may feel “not worthy” of living a greater life.  These “not worthy” scenarios played deep within are sometimes not so obvious to ourselves.  They may require deeper silent searching and an honesty that only we can do for ourselves.  Other blockages could be the anger we are still retaining against others.  This anger will definitely block our good.  The anger may be toward a specific individual or an anonymous group of individuals.  Either way this anger, this defiant attitude that “we are right – they are wrong” can block our blessed good from coming to us. 

But, WHAT IF, we are indeed following our Lord’s laws seriously and loving our God above all others, loving our neighbors as ourselves and we still are not seeing the fullness of God’s abundant life in our lives.  Do not give up hope!  The divine timing is working behind the scenes to bring your greater good to you.  It’s all in the timing.  God’s timing — not your timing.  God only expects that you not give up hope, that you not give up the expectation and the continuance of all the good that you are doing in your life.  Know only that by sticking the course, continuing to embrace your relationship with the Lord, the gifts you desire will manifest in your life.  You just need to know that it’s all in God’s timing.

“I enlarge my vision to include peace and prosperity for everyone.  I open to a world of positive possibilities and expect the manifestation of all that is good”.

These beautiful words come from the March 17 devotional of The Daily Word.  I was particularily struck by how these words could actually be used as a prayer for peace.  So for those of you, dear readers, that believe or desire to see our world become more humane in its treatment of others, please feel free to write down these words on a separate card and use them as a daily affirmation in your life. 

When we pray for others the same prayer includes goodness for ourselves.  I sense that as an individual living in todays cultural and societal challenges we need to focus more prayers and attention to how we are treating each other.  The media in their selfish greed to appeal to the lowest base of human nature has been very successful in creating the picture of man’s actions lower then any other animal on our planet.  And we have bought into this demeaning picture.  I believe it is time for those of us who know better to begin to change this.  One person praying for the benefit of our world has greater impact than you can ever imagine.  So instead of becoming cynical and throwing your hands up in the air and saying “What’s the use” I urge you to be unique and to pray for the goodness of our world.  Be a hero in this life instead of a problem.  In the quietness of your own heart and the privacy of your own home you can change the world.  Believe it when I tell you – it only takes one!

“Rarely does God do something exactly as we think He will.  Our problem is that we try to second-guess God, saying ‘Oh, now I know what God is planning to do!’  Moses experienced this as he learned how God was going to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt.  God told him He would harden Pharaoh’s heart.  Yet, the result was not what Moses anticipated.  Rather than allowing the Hebrews to leave, Pharaoh increased their hardship.  Rather than becoming a hero among the Hebrews, Moses was despised by them for bringing greater suffering.  Moses returned to the Lord and asked, ‘Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people?  Why is it You have sent me? (Exod. 5:22).  Much of the frustration we experience as Christians has nothing to do with what God does or doesn’t do.  It has everything to do, rather, with the false assumptions we make about how we think God will and should act.

“Have you ever done the will of God and then things seemed to become worse?  Moses completely misunderstood what the results of His obedience to God would be.  When things did not turn out as he anticipated, Moses became discouraged.  God had told Moses what to do, but He had not told Moses what the consequences would be.

“It is foolish to attempt to do God’s work using your own ‘common sense’.  God does not eliminate your common sense;  He consecrates it.  He gives you His wisdom so you can understand His ways.

“As you look back on God’s activity in your life, you will recognize the supreme wisdom in how He has led you.  As you look forward to what God may do, be careful you do not try to predict what He will do next.  You may find yourself completely off the mark.”

I could so relate to these words.  When life threw me a major challenge over three years ago, I felt I knew what God had in store for me.  It seemed logical for me to prepare myself for putting a major focus and more physical and psychological resources in enhancing my business life.  Afterall, a devastating divorce and God’s gift to buy my own home in the worse economical conditions this country has seen in years, lead me to believe that the next step would be to expand my working efforts to get my life back to its normal order.  What better way to work through the loss of my past life then to focus on creating a vital successful new life — right?  Well, God didn’t quite follow that same “common sense” approach that I had laid out for myself.  Instead, the day after I moved into my brand new home, I ended up in the hospital and underwent two brain surgeries, with more to come in the future.  God had a completely different plan in mind then mine. 

Now, I could have easily gone down a major dark dangerous slope of depression and fear and had some serious major words with God over this extreme course of events.  But, with the faith I had, and knowing that God would not desert me in this extreme time of need, I looked to Him in total surrender and let Him guide me on a day-by-day basis.  God did work everything out for me.  It happened with lots of twists and turns.  But never did I feel stranded by God.  Today, I am feeling healthy.  I have a beautiful home (yes, the one I moved into three years ago) and I don’t have any money worries. 

Did I have to be open to God’s plan in my life?  Yes.  Was the plan the one I initially thought it had to be?  No.  Did it all happen quickly and easily.  No.  I had to submit to God’s plan — to His timing and in His order of events.  He put me to the test of faith.  But I feel that I have passed the tests placed before me because today I live with the greatest sense of joy I never thought possible. 

The point behind this message:  know that if God doesn’t follow your human plan, it’s because He’s got something even greater in store for you.  You just need to learn to trust Him and hold Him close to you.

“In Scripture, Jesus tells us to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,’ and to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’

“These are the ultimate rules to live by, and I consciously aspire to both.  When I love God, I express the Christ in me.  When I love my neighbor as myself, I behold the Christ in them.  All outer differences fade away.  I look beyond appearances and know, that at heart, we are truly one.

“We are all children of God.  We are all unique expressions of the Divine.  When we embrace that truth, we lay the foundation for a world of peace.”

These are words I personally live by.  They are my motto.  They are my philosophy.  More importantly they are my way of life.  I previously mentioned that these words could be a prayer.  I would encourage you, dear reader, to copy these words and use them as daily affirmation or prayer.  Why would I do that – you ask?  Because if you truly want to see yourself change so that you are a model of tolerance, of peace, of true divine love, these words could get you there.

I am sure many of you have read, or at least heard of, “The Secret”.  One of the key “laws” mentioned in The Secret is the Law of Attraction.  When one begins to consciously work on changing themselves to attract what we want in this life, part of that work is the daily use of verbal affirmations or prayers.  When we take an idea and continue to repeat it to the point where we actually begin to believe this, it will go beyond our intellect to become part of our subconscious.  Once an idea or concept is grounded in the subconscious this is where the magic begins to happen.  Intellectual endeavors don’t cut it for changing ourselves, only belief works the wonders we all want to see in our lives.

Wouldn’t you love to be known as a peacemaker?  Wouldn’t you love to attract love into your life? By truly embracing the words of God in the message provided you can become the change you desire.

  To order “The Secret” in DVD click the link below.  To order a subscription of The Word go to: www.dailyword.com/subscription

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  1 Corinthians 13:1-7.

I love this piece of scripture becomes it so bottomlines the real truth of life.  We can be the greatest of achievers in life–masters of our lives–executives, princes, lawyers, doctors, successful entrepreneurs, actors, pastors—whatever, but if we do not love our fellowman we are nothing.

Acts of greatness, be they in life’s contributions or in charitable acts are only deeds for self-satisfaction if we cannot honestly say we love all mankind.  This is the hardest challenge God has put before us.  Loving those that are not like us.  Loving those that wish to harm us.  Loving those that appear to be unlovable.  This is the daily challenge we live with everyday of our lives.  To learn to love all others.  This mean not judging another when they don’t meet our standard.  It means providing selflessly when we know someone can use a helping hand.  It means forgiving those that have hurt us in the past or continue to hurt us in the present.  This is not an easy commandment that God has laid for us to follow.  It is a struggle for most.  But if our intention is to try and be the most loving we can be then we are walking in the right direction. 

One last word of advise…. don’t beat yourself up if you stumble and fall at this loving business.  Pick yourself up and keeping trying.  This is a life-long journey after all.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13″