There are times when I have a tendency to become somber, withdrawn, and reflective. I have entered into one of those phases where everything brings on a remembrance. While this phase is not really un-welcomed, it is sometimes overwhelming in the data that comes flying at me from all around. It is as if the door has been left open on a really windy day and all your personal and private thoughts are picked up and scattered all around, leaving a helter skelter disarray of muddled thoughts.
This year of 2011 has been gentle towards me. It has been generously laden with so many 'Fruits of the Spirit'.
I feel so undeserving of God's generosity towards me. I feel humbled and uncertain of how to express my gratitude for these gifts that have been shared with not only myself but so many others that I know and care about. God has answered so many prayers.
"God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer'. Mother Theresa
John 15:15-17 (NIV) 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
No matter how many times I read a passage in the Bible I always have a new revelation that is shown to me. God knows when we are ready to receive certain knowledge and he reveals it when we are open to receive his word. To know and hold true in my heart that God chose me is so meaningful. To me it means that I have value and worth and a purpose!
Many opportunities for sharing the abundant life that I am blessed to have has filled my time this year. I have been touched by so many wonderful people and special moments in time, and I cherish each and everyone of them! Making my way through the uncertainty of how to go forward has been challenging in some aspects and a relief in others, when I found that I could manage and overcome the obstacle. Isn't it funny how stumbling blocks are often strewn along the path you find yourself on, making me believe that with each stumble I have received a lesson to help me grow. We are not able to see our future. There might be glimpses of what could be ahead, but there is always the aura of what is not known that encourages us to move forward in the hopes that there is more to come.
I am grateful for each and every person that God has brought into my life through different paths on my journey this year! Some of you I see regularly, some are far away, but in this age of instant communication it has enabled a whole new venue for sharing our lives and our special moments with one another. Although there are many times that I feel alone, and weary of my circumstances, being able to see a message or a picture or a note from someone can lift me up and encourage me to carry on. Most of us make an effort at Thanksgiving to share our gratefulness for life's bounty. This coming year I would like to challenge each of us to begin each new day of the next year, beginning with Thanksgiving Day, to actively share, realize, and acknowledge all the many things moment by moment that we should be thankful for in our lives. We will be amazed at how blessed we truly are! God Bless LSJL
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Thank you Linda for your thoughts. I am overwhelmed at times too of God’s love for me. It is pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteLove you, Nancy