Everyday Thanksgiving

One day I realized my faith had caught the sniffles. A little snot here, a slight hacking cough there … nothing huge, but something that required attention. You never know when neglected spiritual viruses might escalate into consumption of the soul.

Checking my spiritual temperature, I found that a crucial element of my faith was missing: thankfulness.

I was cruising along, performing all my faith duties, but something was lacking. There was no gratitude in my spirit for the mundane blessings of every day.

Seriously, isn’t life really made up of 90% routine, so easy to overlook as Papa God’s intentional blessing?

Thankfulness is a power-packed element of spiritual health that keeps our Creator-creation perspective intact. It’s the acute awareness that the source of our usually unconsidered everyday blessings -such as a warm breeze, lungs to draw it in, senses to feel its pleasure – is the Master Designer.

Looking at it this way, the mundane becomes downright thrilling! We see annoyingly noisy kids as happy, carefree children; work duties become a privilege many are without; household chores wouldn’t take so long if we lived in a grass hut swarmed by flies.

As we cultivate everyday gratitude, worship for our Provider boosts our spiritual health better than even Grandma’s chicken soup.

So what do you think? Is it time to slap the spiritual thermometer under your tongue too? Maybe an injection of thanksgiving is just what the Great Physician ordered.

Excerpted from my 365-day devo, Too Blessed to be Stressed: Inspiration for Every Day (This is the devo/journal)

 

*Speaking of Thanksgiving, be sure to get your name in my granny’s antique gravy bowl for a chance to win a great Too Blessed to be Stressed prize package in my Giving Thanks Giveaway!

Couldn’t be easier to enter  – simply send me three blessings you’re thankful for this year (photos are welcome too!) and your name goes in the drawing for this awesome thankful – grateful – blessed tee prize package. Details can be found at www.DeboraCoty.com; just click on “Freebies” then the Giving Thanks Giveaway.

I hope to hear from you soon! Here are some of the blessings you’ve already sent in:

• Heather is grateful to her heavenly Father for salvation, the love and presence of her family and friends, and daily care from Papa God.
• Karla is thankful for her wonderful family and precious grands, freedom to worship, and faithful friends through the hard times. 
• Janine gives thanks for God’s work in her life, her amazing husband, and miracle daughter.
• Laurie is thankful that her daughter and two granddaughters are recovering from pneumonia, that we can celebrate thankfulness in November and Christ’s birth in December, and for her family and friends. 

So what are YOU thankful for, dear BBFF?