An Attitude of Gratitude

Okay, I know that most of us have already come up with our new year’s resolutions for 2006. What is it about a fast approaching New Year that makes us start thinking of a fresh start? Out with the old, in with the new! I will, exercise more, eat better, spend more time with my spouse/family, spend less and save more, are a few of the top resolutions that people make at the start of every new year (for me it's more like every other day that I make these resolutions!). So instead of the usual more popular resolutions I've decided to make.... just one.

My new year’s resolution for 2006 is simple. It doesn't take any hard work, it won't cause me to run out of breath or have sore muscles, I won't have to give up cheeseburgers, and it won't cause me to stress or feel guilt if I spend a few dollars on a new shirt from the Gap. All it is, is a shift in attitude. This year I will train myself to have an Attitude of Gratitude. Start the year out right being thankful for all that is good in my life and all the blessings that my gracious, loving God has bestowed upon me AND to start thanking him in advance for the blessings that he will bestow on my in 2006.

I have been thinking about writing on this every since I decided a few weeks ago to start a blog site. I have been jotting down things that I am thankful for whenever something would come to my mind. So, for the whole month of January you will read each day about something that I am thankful for in my life. Some of the things will be spiritual, some about family and friends, and some about things that just bring me pleasure.

Thirty-one days to write about something I'm thankful for. Thirty-one days to remind myself how blessed I am. Thirty-one days to make a habit of waking up each day with gratitude. They say it takes two weeks to form a habit, well I have thirty-one days!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalm 107:1

One Brief Moment

The tragedy I wrote about yesterday has been on my mind and I can't seem to let it go. As I prayed this morning for Michelle's sister I started crying. I couldn't help but think about all the lives that were changed in just one brief moment. I thought about a man sitting somewhere at this precise moment mourning the death of his daughter and his wife. What he must being going through! I thought about a young man in a hospital mourning the loss of his mother and his little sister. Oh, the pain he must be feeling.

Then I thought about the man that caused all of this. What was he feeling? I can only imagine what I would be feeling if I had been the cause of such a horrific tragedy. In one brief moment of road rage his life became forever connected with a family that their only crime was driving slower than what he wanted them to. What was he going through in his life that would make him so angry that he would allow that anger to control him and allow him to take his anger out on innocent people? He had to have some issues to show such anger with his wife and four small kids in the car.

How many of us are guilty of getting angry because someone is driving slow and we have somewhere we want to be? Or angry because someone cut us off in traffic? I am guilty! Is where we are going so important that in one brief moment-even if we are not meaning to- we could be guilty of what this man is? Some of you are saying, I would never get that angry that I would cause such a thing, but it doesn't always have to be road rage that has to cause an accident. Just one brief moment of frustration can forever change your life.

We hear of road rage all the time in the news, but this is the first time it has come this close to home for me. I don't know Michelle's sister Jennifer, but I know Michelle, and when one of my friend’s family members hurts, I hurt.

Take this as a lesson, friends. No place we are going is important enough to change you life forever.

A Senseless Tragedy

I just got off the phone with my good friend Michelle and she told me a terrible story. Her sister was involved in a automobile accident yesterday that resulted in a 13 year old girl and her mother being killed. The 17 year old brother is in the hospital in critical condition. Michelle's sister was coming back from picking up her step-son when only what I can perceive to be a senseless tragedy happened.

A man in a fit of road rage, clipped the vehicle carrying the family and sent them across the center median and into on coming traffic. Michelle's sister then hit the out of control car. Even though she is not to blame for the accident she is still having to live with the fact that her car was the one that resulted in the deaths of two innocent people. If you would like to read more about it go to www.tylerpaper.com.

Michelle's sister is okay physically, but still needs our prayers. Pray that God will be with her and allow her freedom from guilt and be there when the nightmares of what happened come back to haunt her. Pray for the family of the ones that died and pray for the one that is still in the hospital.

Michelle, I love you and I will be praying for your family. Let us know if any of your church family can help you in anyway.

In one moment so many lives were changed forever.

A senseless tragedy.

My Prayer Jar

A little over a year ago a friend gave me this beautiful red cookie jar for my birthday. She had heard me saying that I wanted to be able to write down a prayer request and have something I could put it in. So my red cookie jar was prayed over, placed in a prominent position on my kitchen counter and is now known as my "prayer jar". This may sound silly to some people, but it brings me a great sense of peace whenever there is something specific I am praying for or struggling with to write it down and place it in the prayer jar. Writing it down helps me rest knowing that God has heard me and knows just what I need.

Over the last year I have written down specific prayer request that I needed God to fulfill. Some of the requests were not just for me, but for friends that had needs or desire that they were also looking to God for. A couple of days ago I opened up the prayer jar and decided since the year was almost over, I would take a look inside and read over the request that I had placed in there. I had forgotten over time what some of them were and it would be a good time for reflecting. What a great time! Reading over them and seeing how God had fulfilled many of them. It was an awesome opportunity to see just how much God loves us and wants to supply our needs. Only two requests out of about thirty or so had not been fulfilled (yet). What a great percentage! What an amazing God!

So a new year is starting and the prayer jar has been cleaned out and is waiting for some new request. I have already put in the two from last year, hoping and praying this will be the year that God decides to fulfill them. I would love to once again add some prayers from my dear friends. Do you have a prayer request you would like to add to the prayer jar? Email me and I will write them down, pray over them, put them in and watch and wait for God to answer. Or, if you are ever over at my house jot one down and place it in yourself. It couldn't hurt, right? Don't be afraid to share with me whatever you are praying for, I promise only you, myself and God will know what it is.

At the end of 2006 I will once again open the prayer jar and see just how amazing God has once again shown himself. I can't wait!

Rearview Mirror

I have been talking about setting up a blog site for over a month now. I was told it was easy to do and it was free. So, why did it take me so long? Naming it! I really wanted this cool, catchy and unforgettable name. All my friends have these really cool blog names, and this is what I think, far more than rubies, wanna be rockstar, that describe them so well and I wanted the same. So I pondered it, asked friends for advice, came up with a few only to change my mind, but I just couldn't come up with a really good one that made me want to get everything started.

Joel Osteen comes on every Sunday morning and I have made it a habit of watching it. I sat down to watch it Sunday afternoon knowing what would be his topic, after all it was Christmas. I guess they didn't get the memo... because what I had expected to be a sermon on Christ's birth was actually on something totally different. He talked about not living in the past and to quit constantly looking in the rearview mirror. What's done is done and there is no going back or changing it so why keep revisiting it. It really talked to me and has stayed with me. I constantly look back into the past when things seem to go wrong in my life. There is so much for me to blame on the past. Why I am the way I am, why I stuggle with low self esteem, why I struggle with always feeling overwhelmed, why I have a hard time trusting. As some of my close friends know, I did not have the best of childhoods. There is a lot of pain, heartache, heartbreak and regret. I know we are not supposed to ask, but sometimes I cry out to God, Why? Why did you make me go through those terrible, horrible things? Why did I have to suffer every form of abuse known? Why did I have to have a mother that is so wrapped up in her own self pity that she doesn't have room to love me? Why couldn't I have had a father? Why? Why? Why? (Sheesh...could someone please call off the pity party!) I have even reminded God sometimes of all I had been through while asking him for something I wanted or needed. Surely I've been through enough and I deserve something better(probably whatever I'm asking for at the time).

The point of all this is, I thought of a good name for my blog.... Looking Forward.... No more looking in the rearview mirror, no more looking at the past and no more revisiting old hurts and heartaches. This will be very hard for me, it has been a crutch that I have leaned on when I wanted to feel sorry for myself, when I wanted to have something to blame my troubles on. Let go and let God have it. It will only heal when I leave it alone and stop picking at the scab and re-opening the wound. Objects(old hurts) in the mirror(the past) are closer than they appear and if I am not careful and avoid them they will cause me to trip up and crash.

So now instead of asking why, I am now praying, HOW? How can I use it for you glory, God? How can what I have been through inspire, enrich and help others? Please God, don't let what I have endured be in vain... use it!

Now my blog name IS cool and catchy and it describes me very well. Looking Forward is my motto for the new year, pressing ahead and only glancing in the rearview mirrow to make sure when God is changing my path that the way is clear and there is nothing standing in the way.

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead" Philippians 3:13

My first Post

Hi everyone! This is my first post on my new blog site. I have been saying for the last month that I was going to get one going and so here it is! I hope everyone will be back checking to see my posts and I hope even more that it will make sense. Be aware it has been a long time for me since English class, so my grammer may not be at it's best. Thank God for spell check, but i'm never sure where I should put commas or when I should start and stop a sentence.

I look forward to you comments and thoughts on everything I have to say. Oh, boy do I have a lot to say! :)