Are You Grateful?

I've been to Paris where I saw the Mona Lisa.  I've been to Hawaii, Disneyland, and New York City.  I've seen oceans, mountains, and the Grand Canyon.  I've seen Eric Clapton play guitar live and in person.  I've been to Major League Baseball, NFL, and NBA games.  I've seen Tiger Woods play in the US Open.  I have a house with 5 bedrooms in it.  I've got 2 cars.  Everyone in my family has an iPhone.  My wife and I both have jobs.  My wife and kids are healthy.

I have to remind myself sometimes that I've got it pretty good.  I'm not "rich" by Western standards.  My wife is a teacher and I work at Shared Blessings, and while we are plenty taken care of  combined we don't make a six figure salary.  Sometimes money gets tight.  Sometimes I worry about how I am going to pay for something.  Usually the thing I'm worried about is a luxury not a necessity.  If it is a necessity that I'm worried about, it's because I've spent too much money on luxuries.

It's not always easy to be grateful for what I am blessed with.  My wife and I just got back from Europe.  We were so busy seeing sights and taking everything in, I didn't really take time to thank God for how blessed I was just to be there.  When we got home and the bills for the trip started coming in and I had to go back to work, I had already forgotten how blessed I was to have been able to go.

I think that being grateful is a habit, just like anything else.  For me at least, it's one of those things that is not always in my nature to do like working out or eating healthy.  But like working out and eating healthy, it is beneficial.  Being grateful means focusing on the positive instead of the negative.  I don't know about you, but I tend to focus on the problem.  You never hear anyone talk about how the traffic was light or the line was short at Wal-Mart.  It's usually the other way around.

 I think there are 3 steps we can take to be more grateful.

1.  Remember How You Have Been Blessed

When you think about how you have been blessed, you can overcome some of the worry and frustration that happens in life.  Whenever money gets tight or life gets stressful and you get caught up in how everything is going wrong, remember everything that has gone right.  That doesn't mean the situation you are facing will automatically resolve itself, but it also won't be solved by a "woe is me" attitude.

If you know me very well, you know I've never been a big proponent of the power of positive thinking or naming it and claiming it.  But I do think if you look at scripture, God is constantly reminding his people to remember what He has done for them.  When the children of Israel were wandering in the desert and wondering if God would come through, he reminded them to remember the One who had brought them out of Egypt.  When David is facing Goliath, he remembers how God had delivered him previously and it gives him the courage to face the giant.

Remembering how God has blessed us doesn't cure all current worries, but it serves to encourage us that God has provided before and he can again.

2.  Realize How Blessed You Are In The Moment

In those times when God is blessing us, we need to acknowledge it.  We went to Marval this weekend and "camped" with some friends.  We were sitting around with our families and the kids were playing and having a good time and it hit me how blessed I am.

In the Bible, when God did something for his people, they would put up an altar or build a monument in that spot so they would remember it later.  But in order to remember a blessing in the future, we need to recognize it as a blessing in the moment and acknowledge it.

3.  Be A Blessing To Others

Realizing that we are blessed should manifest itself into being a blessing to others.  If God has blessed us, it's so we can bless others.

I remember as a kid we weren't wealthy but we never wanted for anything.  We were blessed.  An my mom made us get involved in serving others.  We used to go to a church in the poorer part of town and help them put on a Vacation Bible School  My mom wanted to make sure that we understood how blessed we were.

Every day I see folks struggling to get by.  I met a couple this week that work full time jobs and have two kids, just like my wife and I.  Combined they make about $28,000 a year.  As you can imagine they are struggling.  This puts some of my worries into prospective.  But if it doesn't cause me to do something about it, then my gratefulness is not manifesting itself properly.

The Book of James says:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 

If we have faith and understand that we are blessed, it should show itself in some way.  If you have enough clothes but you know others don't, come volunteer in the clothing store at Shared Blessings.  If you have enough to eat but you know others don't, donate food to the food pantry.  If you have a nice home but you know others don't, come swing a hammer with Habitat for Humanity.

When we are grateful for what we have it should lead us to see that others have the same when it is within our ability to do so.

Being grateful is a discipline.  Kid's don't naturally say "thank you" when someone gives them something.  We teach them to do it.  As adults, a lot of times, we just say "thank you" like robots, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are living our lives grateful for what we have.  So just like we teach our kids to say "thank you," when we become adults we need to teach ourselves to be grateful.  I have to make a conscience decision to be grateful, but in doing so, I feel better and feel less stressed when things aren't going as well.

The Time Is Now

I've been thinking a lot about time in the past few weeks.  I went up to Tulsa to visit my dad on Father's Day.  It was the last time I ever saw him.  One month later, he passed away.

Any opportunity to tell him anything or do anything with him has passed.  So I've been thinking more and more in the days since about how I spend my time and how little of it there is.

James 4:14 says "What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes."

I think about my kids, who it seems like were just born, but my oldest is months away from becoming a teenager.

So I began to reevaluate how I spend my time.  I decided that it was more important for me to spend time with my kids than to watch television.  In a few years, when Conner doesn't want to hang out with me, I probably won't remember or care what happened on the new season of Arrested Development, but I will long for the days when we played croquet in the backyard or played the board game "Life."

The time is now.

Spend times with the ones you love.  Make memories.  Leave nothing unsaid.  In 10 years you won't care who won this seasons' Dancing With The Stars or whether or not the Thunder beat the Pistons in some random February basketball game.  You can't have that time back and it goes faster than we realize.

The time is now.

It's easy in our busy society to let the opportunity to do meaningful things slip by.  You never hear anyone at the end of their life say, "I wish I'd checked Facebook more" or "I wish I'd seen all the Transformers movies."  Instead people either remember the meaningful events or regret the missed ones.

I think about the Wood family and the Harmon family who bring their kids weekly to Shared Blessings to pack food for hungry kids or sort clothes for those who need them.  Not only are they spending time together as a family, but they are serving their community.  They are using the limited time they have to do something important.   In doing so, they are using the limited time that their kids are young and impressionable to teach them about serving and compassion.  And they seem to have a blast while doing it.

I think about the Richards' family where 3 generations of them went on a missions trip to Honduras to serve those who are less fortunate.  They could have spent that money going to Disneyland or Branson, but they chose to not only spend time together, but serving in a 3rd World country.

Our time is limited and goes in the blink of an eye.  I've never heard anyone regret going on mission trip, serving in a soup kitchen, working on a Habitat for Humanity house, or serving at Vacation Bible School.  That's why the time is now to look for opportunities to make this planet a better place in the short time that we have on it.  Serve in your church.  Work in a community ministry.  Go somewhere and do something meaningful.

The time is now to be with the ones you love.  The time is now to say anything that needs to be said.  The time is now to look for meaningful opportunities to positively impact your community and your world.  If our life is a mist that is here for a while and then quickly vanishes, we need to choose wisely what we do with that "little while."

What would "they" say?

 

How you and I treat people says more about our character than anything else.  Especially those who would fall under certain categories like ... the weak, vulnerable, poor, defenseless, insecure, trampled on, outcast, marginalized, incapable, broken,  and the like.  

I am constantly convicted of how I treat people who are vulnerable.  How often they become a nuisance to me. We take ourselves so serious and often push to the side those who are not capable of knowing how significant and important we are.  Yes, most of us are willing to schedule time to be benevolent.  We will periodically stoop to meet the need of someone below us.  But I wonder what "they" would say about us?  What would the weak, poor & defenseless in our individual worlds say about us?  That we don't make eye contact?  That we walk the other way?  That we are in a hurry?  That we fake listening to them? That we find the quickest way to get rid of them?  What would Jesus, I mean "they", say about how we treat them?

The way we treat people speaks to our character.  The way we treat those above us ... those side by side with us ... and those below us.  Be careful though, even our propensity to place people in a category "below" us says something about our character as well, even if we plan on acting benevolently towards them.  

The Bible says "... in humility consider others better than yourselves".  It takes great character to walk that out.  To see those in our world as more important or at least just as important as ourselves.  Find someone vulnerable today and give them your undivided attention.  See their response and feel your own.  You will learn something about the "perceived" importance of your life and we might just find a way for our lives to become truly important. 

A Dream Coming True!

A dream is coming true for Shared Blessings, but more importantly, one will be coming true for an area family very soon.  Below is a blog written by Joey Clark concerning Habitat.  Joey is our ministry coordinator here at Shared Blessings but also serves as the Director of Habitat for Humanity of Pittsburgh County.  Let's get excited McAlester ... another great ministry under the umbrella of Shared Blessings has come to town!                            Scott Walker




I'm really excited to be a part of Pittsburg County Habitat for Humanity.  It's been a long time coming.  We started the process of becoming an affiliate nearly 2 years ago.  But now we are to the point of selecting partner families and building homes.

I know that Habitat will be a success because I have seen our community rally to meet needs.  I think of the Nutrition Club.  We learned that 1 in 5 children was in danger of missing meals.  We decided that this was not acceptable in our community.  So through the efforts of individuals, churches, and businesses Shared Blessings now distributes nearly 500 bags of food each week to 16 schools in our community, and we plan to see that every elementary school in Pittsburg County is covered by the end of 2013.

What's great about Habitat is that it is a life change for a family.  Home ownership has the ability to lift families out of poverty.  For low income families it is the only way to generate financial stability, but without help, for families living below the poverty line it is nearly unattainable. 

Home ownership has the ability to break the bonds of generational poverty.  Children whose parents own their own home are 60% more likely to go to college and 50% more likely to own their own home one day.

Children who live in substandard housing are 60% more likely to develop asthma than those who don't.  They are less likely to graduate high school and less likely to go to college.  Home ownership has the ability to positively affect future generations.

Habitat is about development, more than relief.  Relief is when we meet temporary needs.  Someone needs food, we give them food.  Someone needs clothes, we give them clothes.  There is a time and place for relief, but development is about moving someone to a better situation.  Development requires those who need assistance in improving their situation to participate in the process.  Habitat is about development, so it is a hand up and not a hand out.  Partner families have a small no interest mortgage, but that mortgage is offset through their participation in the sweat equity program which requires working on their home, community service, and classes on personal finances and home ownership.  But in focusing on development rather than relief you are positively affecting families for generations.  Relief is easier than development and requires less of those giving and those receiving, but development has the potential to be life altering rather than creating dependency on relief.

The reason I believe in Habitat for Humanity is that this my community.  This is your community.  We are the ones who decide whether or not our neighbors live in substandard housing, which over 1,200 households and 1 in 6 children do.  We are the ones who can decide if we want to improve the outlook for future generations and help families obtain the dream of owning their own home.

It is a massive undertaking to make this happen.  But consider being a part.  Here are a couple of ways to do that.

1.  Volunteer - you can volunteer in the building process or in the areas of family support.  To sign-up go here!

2.  Donate - in order to help offset the cost, we rely on donations.  We have low overhead, so you can feel secure that your donation will go to construction projects.

Joey Clark

Ministry Coordinator, Shared Blessings

Director, Habitat for Humanity of Pittsburgh County