Gratitude

I’ve recently been reading Deeper Places Experiencing God in the Psalms. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16234349-deeper-places. This book is written by Matthew Jacoby, pastor at a Baptist church in Victoria and singer with the band Sons of Korah, http://www.sonsofkorah.com/ whose music is based on the psalms. I have greatly enjoyed it and found lots of helpful insights. One that was not new but is one I think we often need to be reminded of is about the attitude of gratitude and thankfulness for all God has done and continues to do for us each day. So this is a list of some of the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful to God for the many years my husband and I have had together and look forward to more to come. It’s a great blessing to be walking with God together, starting each day with prayer and learning from God’s Word together.

One of the things would have to be the area where we live. It is a beautiful area. Each day my husband and I give thanks that God has brought us here.  But on Christmas morning as well as remembering the gift of the birth of Jesus, God sent us this sunrise.

 

It felt like a special gift from God for that day.

I am also thankful for having family all together between Christmas and New Year. Yes, it was noisy, filled with laughter and chatter with all the grandchildren and six adults in our not so large house but it was also a lot of fun. I praise God too that our son and daughter are walking with the Lord and teaching their children His ways. What a blessing that is!

I am thankful for the church God called us to, a church where God’s word is faithfully preached and where we were made to feel welcome from the moment we set foot in the door on that first day. This year will see some big changes for our church in some areas and that is a little daunting but also exciting to see what God will do.

I am thankful for the beach close by and opportunities to go and walk along the beach and swim.

I have been swimming more since we moved here than ever in my life before.

I am thankful for good and lasting friendships from years ago that survive despite distance between us and also for those who have spring up and bloomed since we moved here. I’m thankful for writerly friends who are always prepared to help each other with knowledge and advice.

I praise God for the gift of music. My music taste is pretty eclectic and runs the gamut from 60s rock to opera, ballads from the 1940sand 1950s, jazz, gospel, hymns old and modern and a whole heap more. Just about anything that has words I can sing along with.

I am thankful for the colour blue. Of all God’s colours and I love colour, blue is my favourite. I love the changing blues of the sea which is sometimes a greenish blue or turquoise, and other times a greyish blue, the blue of the sky, and the blue of flowers.

No surprise to learn my study is blue and so are other walls in our house.  It’s a colour I wear a lot, in all shades but teal is a particular favourite.  Red and purple, pink and black are other favourite colours.

I am thankful to God for my eyesight and being able to see the wonders of God’s creation as well as being able to read the Bible and so many other books. I could keep going as there are so many things to be grateful to God for. After all I wouldn’t even be able to draw the next breath if it weren’t for God. I’m thankful that He guides, protects, and enables me in tasks He has called me to do and that He is with me each day.

So at the start of this New Year what are some of the things that you are thankful for and that make you especially grateful to God? Please share them with us.

Sunrise, sunset

By Alice Valdal

At Bible Study the other night, the leader asked us to name a particularly special moment from the past week. A moment? Hard to distill all the lovely times with friends and family and a short vacation into one moment. But I decided to name the sunrise.

For thos of you familiar with the West Coast of Canada, you'll know this is our season of grey, wet days. But, amidst our rain, we have had some lovely sunrises. I find myself watching that moment when the sky lightens and the red ball of the sun appears, streaking horizon beneath the clouds with brilliant colour.

My Dad loved the sunrise, so I find myself sharing those early morning moments with him, in spirit, and smiling. When he first passed away, I wondered if I would ever feel like smiling again, wondered if the memories would ever bring comfort instead of pain. Now, I know. Time does heal and God never leaves us to bear our sorrow alone.

With all the grief and suffering that have occurred in Haiti recently, it is so important that we remember that death is not the end for us. The cycle of birth, death, rebirth rolls on with every sunrise, every seed we sow, every turn of the tide. God's world is infinitely intricate and infinitely wonderful. How perfectly amazing that He cares for us, in all our seasons.

On Sunday, my Dad would have turned ninety. I'll watch the sunrise, then go to church and lead my junior choir in the anthem "Sing a New Song." And I'll thank God for all the seasons of my life.

Music speaks to me in ways that mere words cannot. Among my favourite hymns that remind us of the never-ending stream of life, is this one.

The day Thou gavest, Lord is ended,

The darkness falls at Thy behest
To Thee our morning hymn ascended
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest

The sun that bids us rest, is waking
Our brethren 'neath the western sky
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high

( from a hymn by John Ellerton )

I'd love to hear about your favourite hymns. Leave a comment saying why a particular hymn or verse speaks to you and I'll enter you in a draw for a cd of Welsh Revival Hymns. Winner to be announced on Feb. 26, 2010. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

To learn more about me, check out my website http://www.alicevaldal.com