The 2018 is about to end… one more year is passing by…
Are they to me just days… mere numbers that are coming to an end?
Or have they in some way brought a GIFT at times even though only disguised?
But a gift ..Yes…A GIFT for which we want to say THANKS!
“It is easy to express gratitude when surrounded by God’s obvious goodness, but what about the times when God seems distant? Personal weaknesses, family struggles, accident or illness, even the world’s chaos—these don’t look much like gifts when my inner peace flies with the negative emotions that instantly surface from them. Surprisingly, these apparent crosses gradually reveal themselves as gifts, agents of interior transformation, if I but receive them with the eyes of gratitude. Even as part of me insists upon reacting with negativity or fear, a deeper part of me beckons to recall that God is beside me in this darkness. Like love, gratitude is very much a choice—a choice borne from a conscious awareness that God uses everything for His greater glory.
Embracing gratitude in the face of adversity requires a heart open to grace. However, the surest signs that gratitude is God’s preferred path are the inner peace and deep joy that remain undeterred despite struggle. Consciously saying, “Thank you,” to God for personal challenges and wounds, irritating traffic, and the storms of life remains counter-intuitive to human nature yet the sure way to flowering of life. ” says Cindy Ristroph
Let us then take sometime to COUNT THE BLESSINGS…. even in adversities… before we end the year 2018!