• Heartprints

    Teaching Children to be Thankful

    It is culturally acceptable as Westerners to heap presents on our children at various holidays. We love to get presents and as parents we enjoy giving our children the things they want. In a land of plenty it is very easy to slip into a life of insatiable desires. Do we teach our children to say please and thank you only to teach them from our actions to be greedy and demanding?  If this question leaves us feeling convicted and uncomfortable then perhaps it is a time for change! Typically, thankfulness is not the feeling you get when you get what you want or even what you don’t deserve. That…

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    Heartprints

    A Thankful Heart is a Healthy Heart

    Did you know that in the Net Bible there are 77 verses that have the words “give thanks?”  The first is found in 2 Samuel 22:50, “So I will give you thanks, O Lord, before the nations! I will sing praises to you.” The last is found in Revelation 11:17 “with these words: ‘We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun to reign…’”  1 Chronicles 16:8“Give thanks to the Lord! Call on his name! Make known his accomplishments among the nations!” Over and over in verse after verse we are commanded to “give thanks.”…

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    Give Thanks for a Little

    "Give thanks for a little, and you will find a lot." — West African Proverb I tore those simple words out of a health and wellness magazine a year or two ago and hung them on the fridge. After a while they started to blend in, feeling ordinary just like the other papers and cards and magnets cluttered around them. I'd glance at them occasionally, but their poignancy seldom stuck with me.  The page hung that way for weeks, and even months, until I started reading Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts Devotional. The book’s challenge to count my blessings and daily write them down—until I reach one thousand of them in…

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    Gratitude Challenge

      Each year in October the social media community challenges itself to post, share and declare one gratitude per day for 40 days. From what I understand, the effort started eight years ago by Tisha Poncia, who blogs at On the Wings of Gratitude.    Usually, I shrug away from social media challenges. However, the more I thought about this one, the more I realized, I needed to do this. Although I didn’t post it anywhere, I thought I’d share my first seven days with you.   Day 1: Toilets. I’m thankful for toilets—indoor plumbing, I should say. The first five years of my life, we had an outhouse. Words…

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    Life with a New Liver

    Meet Lisa. She’s a dear friend, coach’s wife, lover of Africa, and most recently, a liver transplant survivor. Her story will challenge you to live each day more fully. “We’ll be there in 7 minutes.” Those are the last words I remember from my care flight. Although I can’t recall much from the week of February 2, 2014, I realize God performed a miracle in my life. On Sunday afternoon, I went in for a routine gallbladder removal—or so I thought—but God had different plans. After the surgery, my general surgeon was concerned about my liver. An MRI revealed that I had developed a rare liver condition called Budd Chiari.…

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    A Heart of Thanksgiving

    I love this time of year. I especially love how time turns as we head towards Christmastime. I have especially enjoyed reading the “…thankful for…” tweets and Facebook posts from my friends. Wordless pictures on Instagram simply thanking God for everything filled my days with smiles. God made such creative people!    I didn’t do any social media things this year. I decided after last year’s Thanksgiving, to skip it this year. What you need to understand is that I fell into the trap of trying to find the most creative way of communicating my thankfulness for the wrong reason. I saw that I played the part of feeling thankful…

  • Heartprints

    Thankful

    Several years ago our pastor gave a series of messages on the Names of God.  To this day, that particular series has been one of my favorites and has touched my heart and has deepened my relationship and understanding of who God is, His attributes, and His character.  As we go into this holiday season, I am reminded and thankful to Almighty God for… He is Jehovah…God is my LORD.  To Him I am thankful.  (Exodus 3:10-15) He is my Elohim…God is my Creator and ruler over all.  To Him I am thankful.  (Exodus 3:14-15; 12:12, Psalm 121:1-3) He is my El Shaddai…God is Almighty and the Sufficient One.  To Him I am thankful.  (Genesis 17:1-8; Psalm…

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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…