To initially enter into thankfulness requires purposeful intent, a daily, proactive effort to maintain. To recognize our life for what it is --- recognize: see, re-think, thank -- we’ll have to have the mental and spiritual fortitude to cognitively re-create the world. To re-cognize how God continually creates beauty good in all things, the ugly too.
We can’t blankly, inattentively, stumble through the day – mindlessly moving from one mechanical task to the next – and maintain habitual gratefulness.
And that’s what we endeavor. Not simply the feeling of gratefulness -- fleeting, that -- but the virtue of gratefulness – a lifestyle of giving thanks in all things.
The emotion of gratitude flaps about according to the weather. Obliging, sunny hours, and it basks. Stormy days and it hangs, limp and beaten. The vulnerable feeling of gratefulness falls prone to circumstances.
The virtue of gratitude, however, determines its own weather. Regardless of forecasts, skies or daily events, virtuous gratitude gives wholesale thanks. “In everything, give thanks!” The robust virtue of gratefulness rises above circumstances.
And the virtue of gratitude necessitates vigilance. We’ll have to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.
In the mess of my day, it’s clear: a lifestyle of thanks isn’t the realm of dim-witted pollyannas. Only the spiritually attentive and mentally robust can re-cognate their days, see their day with God-eyes, and hike their way to the heights of life-gratitude. Isn’t the joy worth the daily effort of the journey?
Because re-cognizing ourselves into gratitude is to enter into the exploration of God right here.
this was taken from the blog "holy experience".
5 comments:
That is absolutely beautiful. I have read it three times. Thank you for posting it.
Have you read "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten-Boom?
Two Christian sisters are sent to a concentration camp for aiding Jews excape. While there, their barrack was infested with black fleas. One night, in order to lift their spirits, they decided to pray in gratitude to the Lord. One sister asked, "Are we to be thankful for even the black fleas?" (I paraphrased that.) "The Lord said to be thankful for ALL things." And so they thanked the Lord for the black fleas.
Turned out, the fleas were a blessing b/c the guards so abhorred them that they didn't come into the barracks, affording them a great deal of freedom.
i think i have that book just haven't gotten around to reading it yet. i'll have to look around and see if i can find it. by the way....i have a book for you. i ordered it for me and also ordered one for you because i thought it applied to something we were discussing at the time. i can't remember what it was now that we were discussing. it may have been goal setting. the book is FIRST THINGS FIRST by stephen covey. he's the guy who wrote SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, in case you don't know. by the way, he is a fellow mormon of yours. i'm sure you've probably heard of him. i took that course a long time ago and it was awesome. of course i never applied it to my life, so it really didn't do me any good. i also bought a 7 habits workbook so i'm going to do it to refresh myself on it. it is about setting goals according to your principles and values and carrying them out. that was my new years resolution to set goals for the rest of my life because i never really had any after raising my children.
I love watching you grow. Thanks for taking us with you on your journey.
Oh my gosh Carol, that is so kind of you! I am excited about it!
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