Gratitude and Joy

...nothing you should worry about today! Sure, we hear that all the time, but so quickly and rather easily we are right back there... fussing over a pending job opportunity, toiling over a potential home, stressing about the weather and an upcoming outdoor event... even just planning a strategy for your career or retirement... forget medical concerns... those alone are more than most can handle! The Lord insists we refrain from 'getting ahead' of today, from getting all wrapped up in 'what...

I am not a fan of Luck; it can go one of two ways. When you have a 'streak of bad luck', you don't know why; when you have a 'streak of good luck', you also don't really know why. We get taunted with the whole 'thank your lucky stars' concept, or the Karma concept, but those don't really speak to the core point if thankfulness, the core point of gratitude or humble appreciation of our lives and the trends, paths, even odd-direction or predicaments in which we find ourselves. We want so badly...

Granted, feeling thankful about a thing or event is something we naturally do... something of a 'response' to your appreciation of that thing/event, and possibly even an assessment of value (you were given something extravagant, say). But, this thankfulness is an accurate and rather predictable response for this thing/event. Sadness, sorrow, whining and even complaining are the same; rather natural and normal responses to a thing or event. In many ways, these are 'learned' communication...

Not sure about you, but sometimes I find it hard to start something or commit to something when I think/feel there are too many steps, unsettled details, or even if it's just 'too complicated' or confusing. Over the course of my life though, I have been learning to break-it-down into smaller, manageable pieces... keeping their own stresses and uncertainties separated. Our devotional today encourages us to approach our faith and our time with the Lord the same way. See, more times than not we...

Yea... sounds kind of dumb to 'wait' for happiness, peace, serenity, even just simple 'ole " sadlessness ", but too often that is actually what we are doing; looking for a happier time; anticipating the weekend, a vacation, or even just a night-out; looking forward to retirement, or just the calming Holiday Season. But, our Father has given us direct access to His peace, His fulfilling joy, and His endless peace... and in that, we are actually directed to 'rejoice', to proclaim victory over a...

Anytime there is a 'big event', there is typically a dress rehearsal, or at least a dry-run pass for it. As you know, this process allows all parties/participants involved to 'pre-experience' how the event may go. But it also helps to expose and work out any kinks, errors, timing quirks, and it especially helps the participants to 'shake off' the fear of the unknown (where do I stand, what's my line, what's my role). Our devotional today helps us focus on something very similar in our lives...