Grateful

‘If only I had this one thing God… then I would be happy and content…’

Have you caught yourself thinking along these lines… maybe even praying for ‘the one thing’? There is nothing wrong with coming to God with requests… But isn’t it interesting that once we have the ‘one thing’, something else seems to pop up on the horizon. It isn’t long before we can find ourselves refocusing on the ‘new one thing’ and, so it goes…

In our quest to fill our desire to be happy and content we can overlook or ‘look over’ the things we do have. It can be helpful to put down ‘the binoculars’ that are always searching the horizon for ‘next thing’ and look at the blessings that are right in front of us.

A number of children were asked the question: ‘What are you grateful for?’

Here are some of their responses:

Family, friends, pets, water, food, pizza, cheeseburgers, good health, doctors, warm clothes, shelter, a home, a teddy to cuddle at night, school, teachers, education, we live in a good country.

Their responses also included things like:

God loves us, God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Christmas and Easter, eternal life!

Our lives would look very different without the blessings we often take for granted.

Giving thanks for the opportunities we have, the people in our lives and the good gifts that God freely gives us, like his love, hope and peace can help us to see how blessed we really are.

Lord, I will give thanks to you with all my heart. I will tell about all the wonderful things you have done. Psalm 9:1 NIrV

Georgie and some reflective children at Good Shepherd Lutheran Primary School!