Gratitude - Day #1 and #2

Happy November (one day late!). Last year, we journeyed through the bible and found verses on gratitude...one for each day of the month. This year, I would like to revisit that topic by revamping my devotionals and adding some new ideas. I hope you will visit each day this month, and I pray that a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude fills your homes this year.

Welcome to a month totally devoted to gratefulness! I'm giving myself a challenge to find thirty verses, one for each day, that teach us as Christ-followers about being thankful to God and to one another. It will be fun to pray and search for scripture to encourage myself and all of you while we continue in the often thankless job of motherhood. 

As mothers, we are instructed to live in an attitude of gratefulness. Let's attempt that precise lifestyle during November. Let's focus on being thankful for our lives, whatever they may look like, for this entire month. Before we begin, watch this video. Be aware...it may bring tears!

Tears of Joy

Even if we don't feel very grateful, our children are overflowing with gratitude for us on a daily basis...even if that thankfulness is masked by a terrible two tantrum :-) You are doing a great job, mommy. Keep it up, and enjoy this this journey of showing gratitude to our heavenly Father...praising him all day long.

Here is the verse for November 1:

 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." 
Psalm 100:4

Whenever we go to the Lord in prayer, our first thought should always be one of gratefulness, not a laundry list of what we would like for Him to do for us that day. Staying in the habit of entering into time with Him in praise is a simple reminder that all good things come from Him. It may be an absolutely terrible day in the life of a mommy, but we can be grateful that we are still breathing, and that our children have life. We have shelter to sleep in, food to eat, and heat to keep us warm. It's so easy for us, myself included, to complain about what we don't have, when what we do have far outweighs the blessings of many around the world. I heard a quote recently that said something like..."What if tomorrow we only woke up to the things we had thanked God for today?" This isn't meant to make you, or me, feel guilty. Let's just consider it a gentle reminder that we do have so much more than we realize sometimes. For that, let's be grateful to the Father!

Here is the verse for November 2:

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe..." 
Hebrews 12:28

I love what this verse is saying. Before God created the foundation of the world, He knew who His followers would be. We were predestined to love Him, worship Him, and spend eternity with Him. But because of our sinful nature, He had to send His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. So then, by the suffering of Christ, we have received the Kingdom of God...if we choose to accept it. The gift freely stands and waits to be accepted. If we believe that God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us so that we may spend eternity with Him, then we have accepted this gift. And then, we are part of His Kingdom...a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. It is eternal! That is absolutely something we should be grateful for!