Attitude of Gratitude

Back in the days when I was a corporate trainer, I used to LOVE sending out motivational and inspirational messages to my team and those I was training. It was the perfect way I thought to begin the day. Focused on something positive whether it was a motivational line, a story or simply something for them to consider during the course of the day.

I think each morning might bring dread for some people. It might just be all they can get to make it to the end of their day. I believe it certainly can't hurt and most of the time it is just what people need to hear. Too often the enemy tries to rob us of our joy before we can even get out of bed. To get our minds off of the blessings that come from simply being able to breathe, the walk, to even have a bed to sleep in. We're so busy dealing with all of that needs to get done, we miss those blessings that are around us in abundance. We've simply taken them all for granted and all it would take for us to become that much more grateful is to lose any of them.

Talk to the homeless man who has to wonder how he will keep warm tonight as you drive by him on your way home to a warm home, with lights and food to eat. What about the woman who is hanging on to life, why you complain about how you simply can't make it through one more day dealing with your stress at your job? What about the woman who just lost her husband due to cancer, and all you spend your day doing is complaining that your husband won't take out the trash?

Seriously, we have so much to be thankful for but we tend to focus on the negative over the positives in our day. We seriously need a change in our attitude and that's why I am incorporating three things I'm going to ask my private group to list every single day about their lives as well as three things they are going to work on. We need to stop being held back by fears that get the best of us and rob us of the blessings God has in store for us. Fear is a powerful weapon and that is why it is faith's adversary. If you are walking in fear, you aren't placing your faith in God to handle things. Sure I understand we are all human and at times, fear is going to attempt to get in the front seat of our lives, but we need to remember who is driving! First and foremost for me, it needs to be God and I'm a passenger. This is a two seater car and there is no room for the enemy to cause me to question anything.

So with that being said, what are three things you're going to work on today? What three things are you going to be grateful for today?

Newest Additions

I absolutely LOVE the path I am beginning to see that God has laid before me. Although it is definitely NOT an easy path, there is some blessings to enjoy along the way. I LOVE helping women to be able to see the same dreams. That with some encouragement, they too can find a new future waiting, all they needed was someone to see them and encourage them to take that first step. I got the most wonderful message from one of the lovely ladies that has joined my private group class. She is one of the most beautiful souls that God has graced me with.

She has managed to do what I have been wanting to do for some time and needed that reminder that some people need to hear that encouragement today, and not wait for the time of their obituary to hear how they have impacted their life. It reminded me of a book I read from Walter Green, called This is the Moment! It is an extraordinary book I highly recommend that every single person should read. It really encourages us to use the time we have now, to reach out to people in our life and let them know now, and now at their funeral what impact they have had in our life.

Another book I would also highly recommend is The Noticer by Andy Andrews. It is a book on perspective. While two people are going through the same situation, it shows that they can "see" things very differently. One person can see the negative things happening in every situation, while the other person sees the positive in it. The positive can always be harder to find, but it is always there. If you have never picked up either book, I would highly recommend that you do. I think they will change you forever in the best way possible. The strange thing is that they have always been there but sometimes our perspective just needs to be pushed, nudged or motivated to see things a bit differently!

However, this one woman did just both of those things. She reminded me of the simple impact one person can have in your life and let it be known now and not later when those words will fall on ears that can no longer hear them. She provided consistent and specific feedback and her words were like the sweetest balm on my ears. She nourished my soul in just a handful of minutes it took for her to write those heartfelt words and for me, they were like a breath of life! She is going through her own unique health challenges and if you would, lift her up in prayer. She needs all the prayer and encouragement she can get as we all know how much fear can play a role in any of our lives.

I wanted to show you just a handful of the new items I finished this week and if you're interested in any of them, please let me know by emailing me, commenting below or visiting my shop at Etsy.

How Can You Be Thankful When Bad Things Happen?

It is so hard to look around the world today and not be affected by what you see. The injustices happening without our national government, and investigators finding evidence of conviction, but they won't act upon it. How can we simply allow this to happen? Is there anything to be thankful for in all of what is happening around us? Watch the news for one night and you begin to wonder, is anything good happening anywhere?

We need to begin to change our own perspectives first, and we need to begin to choose to be thankful, despite how we feel. Things can change when we choose how we will be in that moment. We can let things get us down if we let it, or we can find something to be thankful for. Counter the news of this world, with reading the Bible. We can see the power of God in the world. God's not in a paic by what He sees happening and neither should we.

Developing a thankful heart, provides us a call to action to respond to what God has done.

Judges 10:2 ~ "He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir."

Nothing else is known about Tola, but there was peace under his leadership. We can even take peace for granted as a people.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ~ "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Implied here is the call to 'exercise' which means to agonize, to labor, to work at. We must decide to be thankful. We must choose to be thankful. We are commanded to give thanks when things are going good only right? When everything is going our way? Or when life gives us all we asked for and more? No, we are to give thanks in ALL things!!! You don't need to understand it, when life is definitely NOT fair, in the negative. I thank God that He is not fair either, we don't deserve anything but death, yet Christ paid the price for all, and we simply have to accept His gift of salvation.

Developing a thankful heart shapes our attitudes.

Judges 10:3 ~ "After him, arose Jair, a Gileadite; and he judged Israel for twenty-two years."

After these men died, Israel went back to their old ways again. Do you have a roof over your head? What about clean water from your sink? Do you know that America has 90% of the world's wealth but only 4% of the world's population? Most people living on welfare in America, have a phone, a car and a TV. 72% of the world doesn't own a TV, they don't know where they will get water from today, and many are living without a roof over their head.

Start developing an attitude for thins like a place to sleep tonight, a hot shower (that alone is a blessing!). If you're hungry today, most likely it means you skipped eating, not that you didn't have any food and you should be thankful that you will eat today. There are those that won't.

Israel was blessed, but there weren't thankful and had forgotten God. This nation, like Israel, has forgotten God.

Psalm 69:30 ~ "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving."

Therefore it should come as no surprise to you that many of our states public education systems are revising the curriculum that removes references to Veteran's Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving. We are already seeing our founding father's removed from history because it isn't relevant to teaching our children of today. If this country begins to take the path of an unthankful heart, ad it changes its attitude to exalt man before God, to revise God's history (His Story), when you remove God from the story, you take away opportunities to thank God and praise Him. It affects an attitude of a nation, and how they think, what they do and how they rule. We are seeing that happen here in America even more every day.

Congress alone is the most messed up institution since the founding of the nation. 81% of American's want "In God We Trust" on our money. A very small group in Congress, that is supposed to represent the will of the people, said No! We are supposed to begin seeing some money soon that has "In God We Trust" removed from it.

If you don't believe in God, don't use a dollar bill then. Go use a Peso or Canadian money. Stop saying it offends you. Tough!

When the National Endowment for the Arts lets a painting of Jesus covered in fecal matter be displayed publicly, it offends me.

But guess what? Life is bigger than that. It doesn't matter what you do, Jesus is still coming back and I don't have to be insane and burn down a building to get my point across.

When you remove God and stop being thankful, it changes your attitude. How do you as a parent feel when your own child stops being thankful? Children at that point begin to despise their parents. "I only have 1 iPod, I want 2 and I want it now!'

Psalm 100:4 ~ "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name."

This is a command! So how do I develop a thankful heart?

By beginning to appreciate what you have now! (Not "someday" or "When my ship comes in," or "When I win the lottery!").

Luke 3:14c ~ "Be content with your wages."

Philippians 4:11 ~ "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content."

1 Timothy 6:6-9 ~ "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition."

Let's start getting out children to be thankful, by having them look around and ask them what are they thankful for. Start nurturing it now. Lead by example. We can help those around us, by doing this, in spite of what is happening in our life, good or bad.

A great example of this happened yesterday. On trash day, I have been taking my neighbors trash cans in when I bring my in. Yesterday she walked over and thanked me for doing it. She said it may seem like a small thing, but each time I see that I remember that you are doing that and no matter how bad my day is, I am thankful you take the time to do that for me. Isn't that what it is all about anyway? 

What are you thankful today?

Dear God,

I wanted to start Thursday's off with a grateful heart for all the wonder that You have provided for me. It allows me to stay focused on the things that You are doing in my life and I want to dedicate this post to You.

1. I am thankful for Your grace and love for me and all I am enduring with my personal, medical mystery right now. I am trusting and relying on You to provide what I need to get me through to the other side of this valley.

2. I am thankful for a husband who not only works as hard as he does each morning, but most evenings will come home and take up the task of making dinner and hanging out with the kids when I am confined to bed. I don't know what I would do without him. Thank you Steve!

3. I am thankful to my wonderful girls, that even when their own lives get busy they will still pull off minor miracles and do some chores without asking or bring me something in bed I need so I don't need to get up. Thank you Caitlyn and Kailee!

4. I am thankful to my blogging friends and family who have been faithful in their prayers, emails and hand written cards that remind me even though I may not be posting as often as I'd like, they are still there lifting my needs up. Thank you for all my bloggers!

5. Thank you God, for allowing me the opportunity to share His love and infinite wisdom through this blog as well as my ARKing for God or Acts of Random Kindness for God blog that encourages readers and hopefully inspires you all that we can all make a difference if we are simply willing to try.

Love and Hugs ~ your faithful servant, Kat

Just Say Thank You!

I received this in my email this morning and had to pass along this very moving and heartwarming story. I hope you enjoy it much as I did!

SAY THANK YOU
by Nancy Julien Kopp

The men and women in our armed forces are not numbers in a newspaper article.

Each one that deploys leaves behind parents, sisters and brothers, spouses and children, as well as myriad of friends. They are not numbers -- they are people.

They laugh, they cry, they love, they endure hardships, they work hard. They are human beings with all the emotions you and I experience. They sweat, they like to eat three times a day or more, they enjoy fellowship with others, they pray, they shake with fear more often than we'll ever know. They are warm, living beings.

How often do we read that another brigade has deployed?

Numbers? No, not numbers, that brigade is made up of people who smile, cry, tell jokes, treasure the photos they carry of loved ones. They have headaches and stomachaches like you and me. They get slivers in their fingers and bruises on arms and legs. They're no
less vulnerable to physical ailments than we are, but they face dangers we have never dreamed of.

I live near an army post, so I see uniformed soldiers everywhere I go. They stop at the grocery store on their way home from work just like teachers and attorneys and librarians do. They pick up their children at soccer fields as a civilian mom or dad does.

We are all very much alike, except for one thing.

These soldiers, male and female, have volunteered to serve, to protect our country at home and in foreign lands, to perhaps put their life in danger while doing so.

Have you ever thanked a soldier or marine or sailor? Maybe you'd feel uncomfortable walking up to a total stranger and saying, "Thanks for all you do for me and the rest of America every day."

What a great gift it would be if you could say that to a member of the armed forces. Think about it the next time you see an American in uniform.

A couple years ago, my husband and I were returning from a European trip. We were tired and anxious to get through customs when we landed back in America. As we approached the passport checkpoint, a door opened and an entire unit of uniformed soldiers filed through.

They were returning from Iraq, an even longer flight than we'd had. We stopped and watched these fatigued young men and women as they walked by us. Some nodded and smiled, others stared straight ahead.

Some I could barely see for the tears that had filled my eyes. I wanted so badly to say Welcome Home to them, but the lump in my throat didn't allow it.

The pride that overcame me at that moment cannot be described. I was every soldier's mother for just an instant. And what about the ones who didn't return? The ones who came home in a body bag or a wooden coffin. My pride in them is every bit as strong along with a deep and abiding gratitude in what they gave for the rest of us. They sacrificed so that we can keep living in a free country.

Yes, we Americans have many disagreements, but, even so, we are blessed in numerous ways. Don't wait for Veterans Day or Memorial Day, take time to say thank you to a military person.

Say it in person or say it in your heart, but please say it.

Thankful Thursday

Ah finally getting around to posting my blog today. Hey, better late than never right? I find it's necessary to post as much as I can. My reason for doing this was to create not only an online journal for me, but to encourage those who came my way. It's a self evolving process as well. There are those that follow, and those that stop by that you may never even know were here unless they comment. I am hoping that these postings touch so many and keep on impacting them long after they leave here. Like little seeds! Multiple and populate the Earth!

So one to why I decided to blog today? It's Thankful Thursday! It's something I happened across from Sonya at Truth 4 the Journey some time ago.

Some Thursdays I have so many other ideas of what to write about, or someone will email you an award or something cute to do. I promise I will complete them all for those still waiting. It may just take me some time.

Thursday's are different. Thursdays are the day I go back into my past week and think of the things I am thankful for. Some weeks I am simply thankful I made it through til the following Thursday unscathed and still breathing.

Some Thursdays the week has been so down right blue and depressing it's hard to find something in there to be happy about much less thankful. So this is about slowing down through this speedy thing called life and taking a breath.

That is what Thursdays are for me. A time to reflect and breath. To take account of the things that have sped by me so fast that unless I stop, I forgot that they happened.

SO here goes for this week.

1. I am thankful my daughter is just sick with a cough and cold instead of something much worse. Even though having a summer cold in the heat of the summer when all the other kids are playing in the pools and slip and slides and eating watermelon outside in the shade, mine is hanging in there as much as it breaks my heart. It gives me the opportunity to care for her and show her what love means when someone isn't feeling well. It's something I hope she remembers and will do for her kids when she becomes a mom some day.

2. I am thankful for getting the opportunity to spend an early birthday lunch with my mom and give her something special she wanted. I offered a non refundable trip to see her family on the east coast but she said she isn't ready yet. So we got her Phillies Best Gift cards. It's a sandwich deli shop that makes traditional Philadelphia sandwiches shipping all the ingredients in from Philadelphia. If you havent' had one, try one. Subway, Quizno's and all the other sandwich shops will hang their heads in shame.

3. I am thankful for spending a whole day with my 5 year old niece before my youngest became sick. We took all the girls out to get their nails done and buy her the cutest stuffed puppy. You just gotta have a new stuffed puppy when you come to Aunt Kat's house. Then the girls went in the Jacuzzi and had some dinner. Soon it was time to call her mommy because she couldn't make it through the night on her first sleep over. It's ok, Mea! We will try again another day.

4. I am thankful my hubby completed his mall project and has some time off for now. We are in the process of planning a family vacation and are just tossing ideas around for now. Not sure what we want to do except to escape the heat for now. Maybe Siberia if there is still snow there?

5. Thankful for all the opportunities God has blessed me with in meeting so many people in the blogging community. I have fellow writers who have given me so many wonderful tips and opportunities to try my hand at this thing called writing a book. God has finally said yes for now. I am hoping it will provide another outlet to help hurting people find God in the everyday things. Thanks God for all my wonderful convenient parking spaces as well. Just when I need one, you provide one.

Thankful Thursday

Thursday's are a great way to reflect on what we are so thankful for, and I think it makes us stop and think so we are not so caught up in other things. If you haven't do so already, stop by Sonya's blog, Truth 4 The Journey to find out how you too can become part of the Thankful Thursday group.

Here is my thanks for the week:

1. I am thankful that I never take God's grace and love for granted. Too often when things are going great, we have a tendency to forget about God because we don't "need" Him, but I am thankful He is always looking out for us to make sure things are going His way in our life. So when things go right, it's that time you should take to say, Hey Lord, thanks for the blessings you are giving me today!

2. I am thankful I have a wonderful husband and best friend in Steve. There are just times when I need him to be my friend and help me deal with life and other times I need his love and support as a husband. He is a classic example on a daily basis on all the goodness that God has given me through him. He is also the kind that will go to the store at 9pm just to get you a heat pack because you are in pain, after a long day at work for him.

3. I am thankful for Spring Break. It's so nice as a homeschool mom to get mini vacations. Mornings when I am not running all over town taking and dropping kids off somewhere, where mornings consist of long, slow starts, pajamas til 11 or all day, relaxing days where we just get to be together without obligations. It's so nice, can't wait for summer vacation!

4. I am thankful for the windy 55-75mph winds that are on their way out of town. We are expecting 90 degree temps by the weekend, but it will be short lived. Time to find something relaxing to do, like beach combing this weekend perhaps. Thanks God, for clearing the skies!

5. I am thankful that my oldest daughter was able to sign up for sign language classes at church. It's something she has wanted to do for some time and we thought she would be taking them at the college in the fall. God just blessed us with timing and price. $5.00 isn't bad at all.

May everything good or bad that happens today, glorify God in all His goodness and mercy! He alone is in control of everything!

Gardening with God

Why do we look for weeds instead of flowers in our daily walk?

If you’re like me, I love to garden! I love spring for the benefits of great smelling lavender, roses and herbs. I have a couple of gardens in my backyard. I have a border of roses along my fence of all different colors. I prefer roses that have a long lasting smell and vibrant color. I also have incorporated lavender as well because the bees seem to prefer it. If you can attract the bees, your flowers will bloom like crazy. Plus an added benefit of the lavender is that our hummingbirds love it from the occasional sugar water we have out for them.

I also have two gardens that my kids each have. In one, I have a dwarf, granny smith apple tree and the apple blossoms in the spring are something unforgettable and beautiful. Caitlyn has some mini roses in her garden and a rose bush that produces some vibrant purple/pink flowers. Kailee on the other hand has mini roses and night blooming jasmine so that we have fragrance all day and night long. We also have some freesia plants that grow in containers alongside our spa. Love that tropical smell!

I also tried my first herb garden this year after trying to grow a raspberry plant for two years and saw no results. So we uprooted that, and now have strawberries, cilantro and chocolate mint growing. We had an early snowfall this year, which dumped some two feet of snow and killed our tomato and basil plants. So we will replant in the spring and try again. Gotta love growing your own produce. I really want to try to plant a lemon and orange tree if not for the blossoms but for the fruit as well. Plus think of all that freshly made orange juice and lemonade.

It is often too easy to become distracted by being ungrateful in our daily lives. Too often we spend our prayer lives asking for our own personal wants and needs, our adversities to be lifted, our trials to be eliminated or shortened, occasionally toss in the needs of a friend or love one and we forget to thank God. We forget when our prayers are answered to stop and say thanks to Him. We often pray with needs in mind but not thanksgiving for what we already have. Another beautiful day, filled with the breath of life, a healthy body, loving kids, warm homes, a car that starts when you turn the key. How come we take for granted this things and think we don’t need to thank God for them. Is it because we think we deserve it or because God just does it without being asked or is it that we simply take such things for granted?

“Always be joyful. Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NCV).

I have to pass along a story from Sidney Connell I read recently. When her brand-new bicycle was stolen, she called her dad with the bad news. He expected his daughter to be upset. But Sidney wasn’t crying. She was honored. “Dad,” she boasted, “out of all the bikes they could have taken, they took mine.” Gratitude is always an option.

I believe we should make gratitude our default option and you may just find yourself giving thanks for the problems of life.

Management consultant Robert Updegraff wrote:

“You ought to be glad for the troubles on your job because they provide about half your income. If it were not for the things that go wrong, the difficult people with whom you deal, and the problems of your working day, someone could be found to handle your job for half of what you are being paid. So start looking for more troubles. Learn to handle them cheerfully and with good judgment, as opportunities rather than irritations, and you will find yourself getting ahead at a surprising rate. For there are plenty of big jobs waiting for people who are not afraid of troubles “.(Alan Loy McGinnis, “The Balanced Life: Achieving Success in Work and Love (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997), 56-57.

As you can see as a gardener, sometimes, all I can do is find those irritating weeds that grow in my garden. You know the ones that despite how many weed killers or organic home treatments you try, so many inches of mulch, they just keep on coming back. We need to indwell a garden of grace. God’s love sprouts around us like lilacs and towers over us like Redwood pines, but we go on weed hunts. How many flowers do we miss in the process?

If you look long and hard enough you will always find something to complain about. So quit looking! Lift your eyes off the weeds and major in the grace of what God has to offer.

Gratitude Journal 2009

Have you ever compiled a list of some of the things you are grateful for? I used a suggestion that Oprah came up with some time last year. It's called a "gratitude journal". It's basically a pretty fabric colored book I got from Barnes and Noble filled with lined paper. It is pictured above.

What I did for a large part last year, was every night before I went to bed, I would write in it three things I was grateful for that happened that day. It helped me to focus on some of the smallest things I was taking for granted each day. It was also a great way to look back at some things from last year.

Here are some examples of the things I wrote in my journal: 1. Seeing Kailee throw a sticky ball and it sticks where she throws it. 2. Lemon shrimp. 3. Listening to Kailee scream when she laughs.

I started to include things that I could look back and smile about too. Things that may not have happened that day, but that I could remember and have that warm and fuzzy feeling all over. Like these, the smell of a rainy day when everything is all wet, the way a cold wind feels blowing across your face and through your hair, or watching people try to jump the waves in the ocean and hearing them laugh!

As you can tell I have included so many things in my journal. I want to continue that tradition through this year since it takes the focus off the negative and returns things back to the positive. Trust me, if you search for them, you can always find at least three things, sometimes more. Sometimes, it's the beautiful pastel colors of pink, blue and green in a sunset or the way something smells like apple pie, that takes you back to that fall, cold morning where you and your family went to pick apples while crunching through the fallen leaves on the ground.

It is meant to bring you back to a happy place at the end of a long winded day. Imagine what life would be like if we remained focused on those moments and not the ones that seem to devastate our days, how something so small can blow up into something so large. I think it's time to change and remember the little things. Sometimes it's the little things that matter most.