What a difference a few weeks have made, right. I pray that during this time you are staying encouraged, connected, engaged, as well as active. Despite the limitations, I hope that you’ve found new and creative ways to do so.

You know, we live in an age of information and technology at our fingertips and I’m thankful for all the resources that create a window of opportunity to stay encourage, connected, engaged and so forth.  I’m grateful. In the midst of all of everything that is going on in the world today. I am grateful. I so grateful because I know that know that I know…that this too was conquered on the cross!!  Sure I could talk fear, anxiety, worry, faith and rightfully so..there is a lot of that going on. We are living in a changing season right now, but I want to challenge you to tap into a different perspective and that is an attitude of gratitude.

Today, our real talk topic is about gratitude.

Your next comment or concern might be....what..really..do you know what’s going on…have you watched the news lately. Listen, I can’t find any toilet paper within a 10mile radius? In what world is that normal? Our world has been seemingly turned upside down. I have so many questions that I don’t have answers too and you want to talk about gratitude?

TO which my response.. is yes ma’am, I absolutely do. Listen we all have something, no everything to be grateful for. Most often we just need to be reminded of it. My reminder came a week or so prior to before quarantine.  It was after you’ve had one of those..one of those days that you just want to punch that day in the face. Seriously, you just want to clothesline, tko it. I’m talking about everything that could go wrong does go wrong and then there is a ripple effect that occurs and you’re left with the question of what in the world. No, seriously. How did we get here?

In the midst of my moment, and I love this…the holy spirit reminded me of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 King James Version (KJV)

18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Wow! Okay, so we’re going straight there..okay LOL! What a great way to redirect our focus. Gratitude! The bible addresses giving thanks, thankful, thanksgiving, confession, praise, thanksgiving; giving of praise to God; thanksgiving in songs of worship; thanksgiving choir or procession; thank-offering, the sacrifice of thanksgiving over 143 times.  According to Emmons and Stern of Yale, emotional intelligence, the word gratitude is derived from the Latin gratia, meaning favor, and gratus, meaning pleasing. All derivatives from this Latin root have to do with kindness, generousness, gifts, the beauty of giving and receiving, or getting something for nothing. Sit on that for a while. We all can agree that much of life is about giving, receiving, and repaying benefits and kindnesses. As you look across your day, I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to a moment in time where you’ve not experienced giving, receiving, or the repaying benefits in some form or another. It could be in the form of a smile, greeting a family member, friend, or stranger, waving at a neighbor, words of encouragement, by way of an email, text message, a teleconference, videoconference. Listening to the birds sings, enjoying the sunshine.