Month: November 2014

I remember this song from when I was a kid. I think they may have played it on hymns by request which we listened to every Sunday after Church. It brings good memories and I smile that I still remember the words. There are many days where I recite it or sing it in my head. The chorus goes like this:

One day at a time sweet Jesus
That’s all I’m asking from you.
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday’s gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.

Now, as I read it in the quietness of my home, the words sound so simple, the truth so clearly stated.

When I get into the pace of meetings and board work, shifts to fill and places to be and the day doesn’t feel as if it will hold enough hours, I want to slow down and remember the simple truth of these words:

Yesterday’s gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.

And so with yesterday gone and knowing tomorrow may never be mine, how do I want to live today.

I want to live today enjoying the six hours on the road to and from Chicago….

I want to live today delighting in worship with my family. I love it when we all worship together. Today I will be worshiping with Nick and Jonna, Andrew and Ryan, Suzi and Andy, my Mom and Dad and Aunt Dot, Peter, Isaiah and Johanna. There is something very sweet in that for me.

I want to live today celebrating the gifts of Ryan James. At 16 he has discovered theater and we will be attending his first high school play. I am excited that he has found a venue for his creative and brilliant mind. Yay to youth leadership and the building of community. Decades is a play written, produced, directed, decorated, dressed, lit, audio-ed, and performed by Oak Park River Forest students!

I want to enjoy the conversations shared today. The light-hearted small talk and the words of deeper meaning and value. I want to listen well and ensure I am responding and not reacting. I want to know that whomever I interact with, in words or glances or interactions that are shared, that I will be a woman who radiates life, offers peace, and lives with intention in word, thought and deed.

And so I wonder how do you want to live out today. What do you hope for in the moments that lie ahead of you? One day at a time sweet Jesus is not as much a prayer of pleading (as I sometimes use it) but perhaps more words an invitation which “makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.” Heidelberg Catechism Q and A 1)

 

As I wrap up this Thanksgiving week, I am reflecting on how gratitude plays out in my every day. I don’t want to be someone who focuses on Thankfulness because of a special day, but I would like each day to be special because I am grateful.

And so as I consider what provokes gratitude in my heart and life, I am aware of a few things.

Stillness provokes gratitude in my heart. I am going to be 45 this week. I can honestly say that 20 years ago, I was living a pace of life that did not allow me to understand and embrace gratitude. I believe that stillness nurtures gratitude. I am thankful that especially in the last 5 years of my life, I have embraced stillness and quiet and have experienced how gratitude grows in those restful spaces.

Honesty provokes gratitude in my heart. There is something about being honest about my joys and struggles that unites my heart with others. Allowing others to enter into my reality, both on good days and not so good days, brings about gratitude.

Empathy provokes gratitude in my heart. When I am willing to enter into the lives of others, I find that gratitude swells within my being. Sometimes that gratitude is part of walking in the valley with another and sharing space where honesty and empathy meet. Sometimes that gratitude is an awareness of the spaces in my own heart and life that I appreciate in a new way. I find it hard to nurture gratitude when I live in isolation.

Attitude provokes gratitude in my heart. There are some spaces in certain days where I consciously consider what an adjustment in my thought patterns could produce. I want to be a person who believes the best, sees someone’s strengths and speaks up for the one who may be misunderstood. There is a difference between an attitude of gratitude and a Pollyanna approach to life I want to be clear, when I refer to attitude of gratitude, it does not imply that life doesn’t also have very deep struggles. Grief and sorrow, relational conflicts and daily difficulties are very real. But without an attitude of gratitude, it would be easy to be miss the opportunity to remember that my heart can hold deep loss and sadness AND also finds spaces for gratitude.

Expression provokes gratitude in my heart. I have found some of the best words to speak in a day are

Thank You. I want to be intentional when expressing my gratitude. It can start at the restaurant I have breakfast in and carry through every place I stand in the day. Gratitude may shine through when I say Thank You. Perhaps gratitude is felt when I share how thankful I am that someone was the one to help me at the grocery store because of their curiosity.  Maybe it is the words I speak to my co-workers or saying thank you to my mom each time I leave the gym for being a work out buddy.

I hope that you will commit to more than a day or a weekend or a month of gratitude. I hope that you will join me in living every day with a grateful heart. I believe when I choose to live a life of gratitude, I am changed and I have a wonderful opportunity to invite others to good things as well.