How grateful is your heart?
Linda Soller | Nov 11, 2013
On Veteran’s Day we honor those who fought and died to protect the freedoms we hold dear. Even though it’s a federal holiday it doesn’t get the same amount of attention as some of the other holidays. That is a shame because so much of what we love and cherish about our lives and our country we owe to our veterans and their service. This month in the Drop-In Class we are using the song “Give Thanks” by Don Moen as our jumping off point. If you aren’t familiar with it you might want to look up the song. While the lyrics are simple they are also very powerful.
The song’s first line is “give thanks with a grateful heart.” So I ask you, how grateful is your heart? We can be grateful on many levels. I am always grateful when I can drive to work without having to stop at every traffic signal along the way. That level of gratefulness is pretty fleeting and not particularly memorable. At the time I may be cheering inside as I cruise along, but later that day I probably won’t remember how many lights were green. I am grateful when my credit card bill arrives and it isn’t as big as I had anticipated. This level of gratefulness may be a bit more memorable. My ability to pay my bills on time or make a purchase may be impacted. While my gratefulness is sincere, again it may only last until the next month when I get my next bill.
In class we talked about Jesus’ mother Mary and how despite the difficult situation she found herself in and the potential problems it could bring to her life she was a grateful servant, accepting her role. She speaks of how forever she will be thought of as blessed, even though being pregnant and unwed was anything but a blessing in her world. Her gratefulness came from her heart and trumped any reason or fear that was floating around in her brain. Later Mary would treasure the events surrounding Jesus’ birth in her heart.
How grateful is your heart? If you had to list something different every day of the month or the year that you were grateful for you might just be amazed. At first you would find yourself covering the obvious things, but if you stick with it a while longer you may find yourself digging deeper in to those quiet places in your heart that don’t always get your attention. Let me share some examples of this level of gratefulness. I am grateful for my friendship with my mother. She is my mom, but she doesn’t have to be my friend, so my heart is grateful for her friendship which she gives freely. I am grateful for the prayers of the congregation of FBC Herndon. Church people do tend to pray, but my heart is grateful for the generosity of their prayers and the support I feel from them. I am grateful for the adults my children have become, because there are many things that could have gone very differently in their lives. My grateful heart knows that I benefit from all the positive and negative experiences they have had that made them who they are today. I am grateful for many things, but most importantly are those things which I hold in my heart.
In this month of Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving Day take a minute to give thanks with a grateful heart.
Have a great week :o) Linda