ALL…

A Gift Worthy of Thanks.

            What happens when those ads and those commercials stop touching our hearts?  What happens when we don’t feel the hunger that the famished little boy with the Santa belly feels? What forms when we grow annoyed at the media attempts to raise money for those in Haiti, Africa, and Japan? We forget.  We forget where we live, what we have, and Who is distributing it all. We forget to be thankful.

            The following data from Poverty Facts and Stats, and Trak-In, will help you remember:

·         Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

·         Close to half of all people in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.

·         For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

            640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)

            400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)

            270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

·         In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China

·         Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.

·         Having access to a bathroom means a person is more fortunate than 2.5 billion people in Asia Pacific and Africa who lack sanitation facilities.

·         Having electricity makes a person more fortunate than 1.6 billion people who do not have access to electricity.”

(Anup Shah -http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

(Arun Prabhudesai-http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/12/20/indian-people-fortunate-futurescope-quiz/) 

            With these facts, are we pushed toward gratitude?  We have all we need in the United States.  Yet, so often we are stuck in attitudes of dissatisfaction.  If we focus on what we are without or what we must attain, we will never know the joyful blessing that comes from being thankful for what we actually have.  What is it like to be the famished child in Ethiopia?  Living here in this country, to be alive at all, is a privilege and a blessing from God. 

 Every moment of our lives truly is a gift.

            My eyelids open to light peeking in; I am awake.  My hair gets stuck in the brush and I feel the tug; I can brush my own hair with my own hand, the tug hurts and I feel the pain.  He made the coffee strong. I smell its bold aroma and I can taste its needed jolt.  I pull supper out of the freezer, finish last minute cleaning, miss my workout and am two minutes late to work again.  Children laugh at the bus stop; I can hear their joy and breathe in the nostalgia.  The leaves have turned, the colors mesmerize me; I get to see and experience the seasons change.  Dinner is served, the warmth of the shower relaxes, and my head hitting the pillow brings peace… 

I must give thanks because I understand that:

Waking up to experience a new day is a gift because tomorrow is not promised.

Brushing my hair is a gift; some have lost theirs.

Smelling bold coffee and tasting its goodness is a gift; some can’t afford coffee or even open their mouths to taste it.

Having supper to pull out of the freezer, a home to clean, the ability to exercise and a job to arrive at are all gifts worthy of thanks; I’m sure that’s what the famished boy would tell us too.  We need hearts of gratitude.  What needs to change is not the amount of things we have in our possession or the successes we have accumulated, but rather the amount of thanks we store in our hearts and the perspective from which choose to look.

Being constantly thankful is not easy but it will always change our perspective.

A Blind Perspective.

“I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.

I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf.

I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine….

I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle… is revealed to me.

Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song….

At times my heart cries out with longing to see these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.

Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little.

The panorama of color and action which fills the world is taken for granted…

It is a great pity that, in the world of light, the gift of sight is used only as a mere convenience rather than as a means of — adding fullness to life.”

~Helen Keller (www.aholyexperience.com)

Make this Thanksgiving more than a holiday.

            If we could see like Helen Keller or talk to the little boy with the bulging belly, we would understand that Thanksgiving is not just a holiday but a lifestyle.  In a season that has us anticipating Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Black Friday Sales, can we dig a bit deeper, slow down a bit longer, and spend concentrated time looking at what we have, being truly thankful for it?  Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us; making today, and all that is in it worthy of great thanks! 

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 KJV.

“It’s when all fails that His love never fails —

and this is why we are a people who can always give thanks.”  Ann Voskamp

Rust … Is Ugly!

            I will never forget my first ten speed mountain bike.  It was pink and gray speckled, with handle bars that went straight, instead of looking like the horns of an antelope!  This bike really was something.  My dad and I had spent a full day pressing little colorful neon decorations onto each spoke.  While riding my bike, I could hear them clank up and down, while spinning round and round uncontrollably.  Cool was an understatement…for this bike.  Unfortunately, I left it out in the rain one too many times.  It truly was a sad day when I went outside only to find that my shiny spokes of silver were now shades of brown, red, and orange, colors that definitely did not enhance my bright neon spoke decorations.  My treasured ten speed was not so cool anymore…my bike spokes were ruined.

            A bit more recently, my husband and I were spending the day with some friends.  Their little boy was outside playing in the rain when he dashed through the door to unfold his tiny, muddied hand dropping a palm sized dump truck right onto the table.  “Mommy, this one has metal and it can’t be in the rain!”  From a lesson learned in the bath tub, he remembered that metal toys and water do not mix.  The result can be rusty toys that are no longer worth playing with.  

He understood that rust can ruin something special to him, and he wasn’t taking any chances…

            Rusting is a process that takes time to develop.  One small droplet of moisture reacts with oxygen in the air and causes a chemical reaction to steel and iron.  Over time, an acid is formed from dirt/dust mixing with the chemical reaction, which eats away at the metal, ultimately forming… ugly rust!  

Have you ever had anything ruined by rust?

            I started to think about how our hearts, intentions, and attitudes often seem clean and shiny.  When we are treated right and everything is going how we want it to, it’s easy to have that appearance. Then, one droplet of soggy hurt after another, and we begin to tarnish with layers of fear, anger, and bitterness. The longer we hold on to the hurt, or whatever it was that offended us, the closer we get to irreversible rusting.  What happens is something like this; I used to get stuck in self-pity.  The ‘poor me’ game in my head, often overwhelmed my heart.  Before I knew it, my self-pity turned into blame, which turned into un-forgiveness.  Before long, I was in cruise control taking strolls down Envy Dr., Bitter Blvd., and Anger Ave., only to come to a screeching halt on Whoa-is-Me Lane!  What started as a way to talk myself through a hurt or injustice done to me, ended up keeping me in a whirl-wind of ‘someone owes me something’ bad attitudes and negative outlooks.  Left like this too long and rust takes over permanently- or the hurt becomes the attitude, and the attitude becomes the person. We often convince ourselves it’s just who we are, when really it is what we let our lives, circumstances, undealt-with hurts, and feelings determine who we will be.  When you allow your hurt to cause you to be dishonest with yourself or others, you harbor bitterness and let ugly rust form on your heart. This is dangerous, but reversible.

Rust can be prevented.

            When dealing with actual rust, the most obvious prevention is to avoid moisture.  When dealing with the rust we let form on our hearts, there is a measure of prevention that is 100% effective yet often unused.  Honesty & Forgiveness. Normally, there is a ‘someone’ who did ‘something’ that caused an initial hurt.  If we never forgive that person, they stay with us all day long in our minds.  Replaying the offense in our heads, we bring them to breakfast, lunch, dinner and then right into bed with us because we think so much about the hurt they caused.  The longer we hold on, the more time we give for rust to take over.  But, if we forgive and truly let go of the hurt, piece by piece and layer by layer, we begin to see ugly rust lose its grip on our hearts and emotions.  We have to be honest about the hurt, even if it is one that we caused ourselves.  Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is the one that looks back at you in the mirror.

Don’t let rust ruin what’s valuable.

            The little boy knew that rust could ruin his prized dump truck, so he took precautionary measures.  Similarly, we need to know that rust, or not being forgiving, can ruin what is most valuable to us- our well-being and our relationships.  Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends (Proverbs 17:9).  Hopefully, we too can protect that which is valuable by utilizing honesty and forgiveness- preventive measures that truly work.  If rust is allowed to develop over a lengthy period of time, it can take ten times that amount of time, to get rid of it.  In the long run, we only hurt ourselves and miss out on the good in this life when we hold onto pain.  Thankfully, the Lord is good, ready to forgive, full of unfailing love…for ANYONE who asks for help (Psalm 86:5).  We can trust that the Lord will forgive us, help us to forgive, and ultimately clean the rust off of our hearts if we ask Him too (1 John 1:9).   “I’m sorry,” starts with I, and “I forgive you” starts with I too.  It is a personal choice.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

‘Dump Cake’!

Because of the dump truck that caused me to think on rust, I offer this incredibly easy and interchangeable recipe.

1 package white cake mix (or preferable flavor) 1 package instant turtle pudding mix (Try any pudding mix) 4 eggs, beaten 2/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup white sugar 1/3 cup water 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (Can add extras; heath, coconut, peanuts etc.)

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
2.	In a bowl, mix the white cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, vegetable oil, sugar, and water. Gently fold in the sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into the prepared Bundt pan.
3.	Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling racks