"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 107:1
I have a little ceramic pumpkin that I keep on my kitchen window. I keep it there to remind me when my focus gets off balance of how truly blessed I am. It says simply, "Nothing is more honorable that a grateful heart."
The longer I live on this planet the more I understand that without Christ I am totally insignificant. My worth and value is found only in Him. When I begin to get that attitude (you know which one I mean) that says, "What about me?", "Why not me?" or "No one asked me!", I know it's time to seek out my ceramic pumpkin.
I want to be honorable. You don't hear that word much these days. We are encouraged to strive to be seen as important, significant, valuable, powerful, self-confident, and self-sufficient. But those qualities don't lead us up to the front door of honor. The scripture tells us that God "resists the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6) Further on in Proverbs 15:33 we read that "...humility precedes honor."
I don't believe I've ever met anyone that I truly considered honorable who didn't have an evident attitude of gratefulness. Sometimes the holiday of Thanksgiving is so commercialized that we forget what it really means. Psalm 107:1 isn't talking about the Thursday late in November on our calendar. For many, Thanksgiving is a jacket you throw on once a year. But gratefulness is something different altogether. Gratefulness is a familiar sweater that you pull on every morning. Gratefulness to God should be the filter through which every thought, situation and circumstance must pass through to get to us.
The quotable G.K. Chesterton when speaking about gratitude penned these words..."Nothing taken for granted, everything received with gratitude, everything passed on with grace."
I think I'll hang on to my little ceramic pumpkin. Need one?
