Gratitude

Stop and take a moment -- what are you grateful for? What surprises has God placed in your life so far today? It is an interesting fact that, if we stop and think of things we are thankful or grateful for, our entire brain chemistry changes. We are people who are wonderfully made by God with the capacity to love and to be loved. We have the capacity to see the world with the eyes and minds of gratitude, or we can choose to see the world with a sense of foreboding or thoughtlessness.

Now, I am not saying that we can radically change our lives by choosing to be thankful for the small, often overlooked, blessings of our lives, but I am saying that we can, with God’s help, become more aware of the blessings we have been given and that that can allow us to become more loving, thoughtful, and compassionate people who follow Jesus’s command to love one another as he loves us.

I hope you were able to attend the all-parish meeting this past Sunday when we gathered to share the blessings and joys of our common life, and we shared the results of the survey you completed. We were able to talk about the things for which we are grateful and to talk about the aspects of our common life in which we can continue to grow in hospitality, compassion, leadership, grace, and love. If you missed that meeting, watch the newsletter for an announcement of another meeting to hear that information.

Blessings on your day. Perhaps in a moment of gratitude you simply tell someone “thank you” for their smile, their holding open the door, their serving you lunch, or a myriad of other grace-filled moments that you find in your day. Share your thankfulness -- it is contagious, and your thankfulness will bring joy to someone who, God-willing, will be able to share the joy with the next person that that one sees.

Mo Pat+