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How to Glorify God at School
Just got home from taking my student to walk her schedule and practice opening her locker at her new school. Despite all the fears that come with her disability—you can read about that here—I feel so thankful for God’s faithfulness in Anna’s life, as she gets ready to start junior high in a few weeks. One of the challenges Anna faces this year has more to do with her desire to glorify God at school than anything else. I told her glorifying God can produce all sorts of blessings, but it can also lead to bullying. She didn’t even blink. Instead she asked, “What am I suppose to…
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5 Ways to Encourage Gratitude in Your Family
Johnny Henry Jowett, a well-known pastor from the late 1800’s, said: “Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road.” I’ve never doubted the importance of gratitude. Many studies done in recent years back this up. Wall Street Journal, for example, referenced a study done among teens showing that those with higher amounts of gratitude also had higher grades, less depression, less envy, and a healthier outlook on life. Yet, sometimes I’ve failed to see the full value. Even worse are those…
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Slowing Down
The summer I was 16, we went to Yosemite National Park for our family vacation. My parents invited my sister and me to give input on what we would like to do and see while on vacation. Being an avid researcher, I scoured travel guides, read Yosemite tourist blogs and requested tourism literature from numerous California cities. I dreamed of whale-watching cruises, waterfalls, and Hearst Castle. I looked at breath-taking photos of Half Dome and Monterey Bay, and decided that we would just have to do it all. I didn’t want to miss a thing! I submitted a 12-page itinerary down to the hour, detailing everything from lunch breaks to…
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The Commencement Address I’ll Never Get to Give
Graduations mean commencement addresses. Most of which are eminently forgettable, containing feel-good charges to go do great stuff and change the world. But in my experience, they’re always given by men, who are some kind of celebrity. I am neither. But I have a few thoughts on practical life lessons that newly-minted graduates might use. “Hey graduates, congratulations. You made it to the cap-and-gown stage. Not without a lot of help and prodding and prayers and frustration from your parents though, right? Thank them. There’s not a single thing you are or do or have that they didn’t have a part in. Thank them again. “Speaking of thanking, one of…
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A Thanksgiving Dare
Did you know that thanksgiving is another definition for the word Eucharist. The meal we consume this Thursday can be a gathering that reflects Eucharist living. Ann Voscamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts, explores in poetic prose the power of this simple and biblical concept, gratitude. Ann discovered the pattern of thanksgiving that runs throughout the scripture. Not just the challenge to “in everything give thanks” (I Thess. 5:18) but how thanksgiving to God is exampled by so many biblical characters as well by the Jesus himself. Then a friend challenged Ann with a dare, “Could I write a list of 1000 things that I love. To name 1000 blessings—1000 gifts,…
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3 Disturbing Gratitude Trends
It seems like everyone is doing the 30 day Gratitude Challenge. I am all for gratitude, but I am noticing a few trends that make me just a little bit uneasy. Trend #1: “Me-Centric” posts. They may go something like this: Day 1: I am thankful for my… Day 2: I love my… Day 3: I am so grateful to have a … Is it just me, or is this over-focus on “me-centeredness” just another symptom of our self-indulgent society? What if a post went something like this? Day 4: I am thankful for apologizing to a homeless man after I ignored his question and watching God work in both our…
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Offering Time at The Rose of Sharon Church, Ktado, Kabwe, Zambia
She could hardly move, the bent over elderly woman whose hip had thrust its way so out of joint that she needed a cane to walk. Even then she could only inch her way forward. It was offering time at the Rose of Sharon Church in Kabwe, Zambia; the band was playing as the singers told of Elijah and the coming of salvation and how Jehovah saves. The offering basket is not passed among the people in most African churches. Instead they stream forward to put their contributions in at the front of the church, and that’s the way it is at the Rose of Sharon Church…
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The Glad Game
“Let’s play the glad game!” The golden-haired, azure-eyed child declared to a group of grumpy-faced adults. Her silly phrase got me thinking, do I look for reasons to be glad? Two Fridays ago my husband and I nestled onto the sofa and put in the Disney classic Pollyanna. I prepared myself for a few cheesy lines. I expected the drama-turned-to-joy storyline. But I didn’t anticipate learning a spiritual practice from the 1960 film. If I take an honest inventory of my life, gratitude is often absent. I overlook the good things before me—friendship, food on the table, family, —because I’m focused on what I don’t possess. And as gripe about…
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Discover Prayer (Part VI): Have an Attitude of Gratitude!
Thankfulness is to render gratitude or express thanks for words spoken or actions taken on our behalf. However, to be thankful, we must be able to recognize the giver’s favor, gifts, or promises on our behalf. Realize the Bible is filled with as many as 30,000 different promises from God to us His children. Every day we receive God’s grace (i.e., God’s unearned favor) for the fulfillment of these promises — and yet we often let them go unrequited.
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Turning Thanksgiving Inside Out
Time to be thinking about the holidays. Next one up, Thanksgiving. Oh joy. It’s not too hard to come up with a list of reasons to grump about the Thanksgiving holiday: • Lots of work in the kitchen • Lots of cleaning to do • Lots of cooking to do • Lots of buying food to do • Spending time with family where the worst in people easily spills out • Crowds in the stores as we prepare • The stores already have their Christmas decorations out—like since Halloween • Too much football on TV • Too much food But to cultivate a biblical mindset, we can take this list…