My sincere Gratitude for Each of You, My Dear Reader Friends

Thank you, my dear reader friends, who have read my blog and my books over the years, and those of you who so often have offered encouragement at just the right time in need. I smile to think of it. The thought brings memories of how this blog was a main instrument in bringing me back to writing–and you a necessary part of that with your encouragements.

So, thank you, dear reader friends. I pray you have a most wonderful Thanksgiving Day, if here in the U.S., and wherever you are, I pray that you take hold of the power of giving thanks all the year through.

Years ago, so long ago that I can’t remember where I read it, I read this about gratitude:

“Gratitude turns what we have into more.”

It was Samuel Johnson, a great and prolific writer of his day, who said: “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation.”

Complaining apparently is built in to the human being. I know so often my initial response to things not going my way is grumbling. Gratitude is a choice, and it must be cultivated, at times with a lot of failures and sweat and tears, like working in a vineyard in the dirt and manure. You must choose gratitude over and over, and when you do, you reap the wonderful fruit of Life.

Gratitude transforms fear into courage, stale thoughts into productive ones, despair into hope. When I fear having enough of anything–thoughts and skill for writing, money for bills, patience to endure, energy to carry through with plans and to meet obligations, I give thanks for all the good things that I have had in the past, and the abundance of the moment. When I’m faced with a trial, after my initial cry of alarm (to which the dog comes running) I have trained my mind to move to any and all things for which I can be thankful. I can report that doing this has become easier after so many years.

As I’ve written this post, a number of problems have sprung to mind. I remind myself to shine the light of the light of gratitude upon those problems and see what solutions are presented.

Psalm 100:4, in the Amplified Bible, tells us: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!

Thank you, friends, for reading and sharing life with me. May your thanksgiving this year bring you life and peace.

Blessings,