Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #20

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.ner

I have a friend whose sister-in-law was forced into retirement more than likely sooner than she would have due to a condition that causes her to rely on a tank for her oxygen supply. Though it’s been a little over 10 years since I’ve had extreme difficulty breathing due to asthma, I’ve only experienced one event that sent me to the emergency room. I have been blessed that with the usage of occasional medication my lung capacity is fully functional. How about you? Can you function throughout your day without having to push an oxygen tank around? You may experience some breathing discomforts due to taking poor care of your health (weight gain, smoking, not eating right, etc.) but you woke this morning with breath in your body so you have an opportunity to do something about it. Be grateful for the lung capacity you’ve been given to breathe on your own! Every time it crosses your mind today to think about something you don’t have—pause and then inhale and slowly exhale. That’s your lungs functioning.

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #19

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

There’s no doubt that there is always an opportunity for danger. Let’s just get that out the way. You see it in the news all the time. But consider all the times you’ve been protected. Even if you’ve suffered some injuries or other consequences of danger, you still have your life. Not everyone has the opportunity to walk away from danger with their life. How many times over the course of your lifetime have you been out on the highway and have been protected from 18 wheelers and other vehicles? Could you even count the instances? How many times have you stepped up to an ATM, got your money and walked or drove away safely? Any close calls? How many times have you had to walk through a public parking garage, regardless of the time of day, by yourself and reached your destination safely? One more… If you have children or grandchildren, are they alive and well right now? If they’re not, I’m sorry and I pray God’s peace and comfort continue to be with you right now to give your soul what it needs. The point of all this is not to depress you are cause you fear today. The point is to help your mind elevate to a level of always finding a reason to be thankful. In a world where we can so easily find fault and discontentment, sometimes it’s hard to be thankful. However, when we tend to lose the things we cherish most is when we start telling others to cherish what they have. So, why not let’s try to do that every day—on purpose. Don’t be thankful because this woman on her blog keeps nagging the heck out of you to be thankful about something but because you really want to and you’re trying for yourself. So, I’m helping you…and this helps me too. J There’s a lot going on in this world, both good and bad, but aren’t you glad for the circle of people you have in your life? Aren’t you glad that you have another day above ground to do whatever it is you were left here to do? If so, don’t waste it.

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #18

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

Imagine having to write down everything you wanted to say to every single person you needed to talk to today. Imagine how that might impact your job today. If you don’t work, imagine how that might impact you interacting with anyone today. Okay…imagine that you find out this inability to speak was going to be permanent and there was nothing you could do about it. You can’t scream. You can’t moan. You can’t make one sound. Tears are streaming down your face because thoughts are flooding your brain and it scares you the thought of not being able to make a sound to anyone for the rest of your life. And if you sing…imagine that no melody will ever leave your vocal chords from this very moment on. We just take for granted that when we wake up every day we will move our lips and sound will just come out in the form of audible words. We are owed nothing. Do you get what I’m saying to you? You and I are owed NOTHING! I truly believe that it’s because of grace and mercy that you and I can talk. I’m certain that no one who was born without speech or once had a voice to speak but lost it due to some illness or unknown reason would tell us that they had the control over their vocal chords’ function. Yes, there are vocal exercises and remedies to help the vocal chords but nothing that reaches beyond what modern medicine can do for those cases of complete loss.

Be grateful that you have a voice to speak every day. Take time to think about all the various ways your voice serves you on a daily basis. Think about the relationships and lives that have been enriched because of the sound of your voice whether through spoken words, prayer, or the gift of song. Cherish the sound of your voice today and use it for good.

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #17

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

Have you ever seen someone walking around with the fly on their pants unzipped? I mean just strutting around, having conversations and totally clueless about their exposure. Similarly, many people in their everyday lives are walking around outwardly maturing but their minds are still at high school level (some even grade school level). Just because the number of candles on the birthday cake increase from year to year doesn’t mean that the person’s mental maturity increases. So, if you’ve been able to progress mentally at a level that says, “yes, I enjoy my life but also I embrace knowing that I act my age” be grateful. Mental maturity is no guarantee.

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #16

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

Bad choices/Bad relationships. “If I had it all to do over again, I would not have been with that person.” Have you ever come out of a relationship or marriage that went nowhere or know someone who has and heard that phrase, or similar, repeated? I feel differently. Though I wish I had not made the choices in relationships I had, I’m still grateful for them and would not want to undo any of them. See…there were some choices I would have made that for whatever reason God just never did allow to be. I see those cases as His protection from whatever I believe would just have TOTALLY destroyed me. But the choices that I did make that He allowed (I had the free will choice and He allowed) I can look back now and see how they catapulted me further in my spiritual walk with my Creator. Let me preface my next few statements with the fact that not everyone has to go through some bad choices in order to be the person that they are supposed to be. But I do firmly believe that my Creator knew everything about me from the time I was formed in my mother’s womb and HE KNEW what things He would need to allow Charlotte to go through and what things He would totally not allow the enemy to plant in my life. See before I made all my bad choices, though I had genuine love for others, I believe I was somewhat “secretly” judgmental of other people’s bad choices. “How could they do that? I would never do THAT…” I was 31 years old before I ever had my 1^st date (yes…pick your mouth up off the floor). So, it’s no wonder that one guy whom I’d met when I was 34 felt the need to tell me after he’d seen me about 7 years later that I had low self-esteem when I 1^st met him. When I last saw him I’d dropped the 5’1 and 232 lb frame he once knew along with I guess some other characteristics I carried. At first I was offended that he thought I ever had low self-esteem but the more I thought about it he was right. Because the fact was that I was in a period of failure to realize my esteem came from my Creator. I was able to take all the things I learned from the short-lived relationships and pour them into my personal growth in ways I never imagined. Now when I’m looking down at a woman or man I’m seeing someone that I “secretly” hope will drop their pride and let me reach out my hand to pull them up. I just want them to have the same life-changing grace that I’ve experienced. My vision is different because of all my bad choices; every last one.

Some may not believe this…but when I was a little girl God gave me a very small glimpse into me straying from my devotion to Him later in life. As a little girl I did not understand at all what He was showing me because of the beliefs I held. I think back now to the heart of that little girl and see that like Peter she was in denial. But somehow, God knew she would be able to handle what He was showing her. I genuinely cried and told God that if I ever walked away He had to promise me that He wouldn’t let me go or that He’d have to pursue my soul. Well, He honored that little girl’s prayer because here I am…the woman I am today. And I am forever grateful.

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #15

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

Protection when alone. Sometimes you are going to need or want to explore things in life that might have you doing them solo. How often have you heard about people who have gone places alone and the most devastating things have happened to them? What about people who have gone on spring break or vacation trips and have never been found? You may have heard of the young man who went to meet with someone to sell his car from Craig’s List and the encounter proved to be fatal. Even with the wise decisions you and I think we make on a day-to-day basis, we have no idea how bad things could be if it was not for the protection that many refer to as “someone’s looking out me.” I prefer to refer to it as God watching over us. Even when we ourselves KNOW we don’t deserve it—there is His grace and mercy. Yesterday I flew out to LA to listen to some very gifted spoken word artists who are a part of P4CM (www.p4cm.com). Before I left home yesterday I was experiencing a little anxiety about navigating the city because I would be driving myself from Los Angeles to Los Alamitos to hear these artists; I’d never been to LA. This is something I really wanted to do but as I often do, when I decide to go on solo adventures, I started second guessing my decision. Well, anyway I prayed about it and got the peace that I needed from God to go and enjoy my overnight trip. Not only did God give me guidance about everything I needed to do while I was out and about, but He also gave me His protection.

It is very necessary to use wisdom when we are alone or wisdom to NOT DO certain things alone. I also believe that God gives us the protection we need to do all the things HE WANTS or WOULD FAVOR us to do to live the life that He has planned for each of us individually. I feel that there are so many people, especially single people, crippled in pursuing the things God would allow them to have in life due to many reasons, one of them being—a failure to know protection. To feel and know that we’re protected is a necessity to live life. But what happens when your protection is totally reliant on “the physical?” Let’s face it, with the things that go on today in broad daylight, if you are just going to the ATM and leave there unharmed, you’ve experienced the grace of God’s protection. That happens all day long. But wouldn’t it be great to trust that with every Godly wise decision you make, whether with others OR ALONE you are protected? Gives you more opportunity to be thankful, wouldn’t you say?

Days of PURPOSEFUL Thankfulness – Day #14

Note: Refer to day number 1 (July 25, 2015 post) if you don’t know what this is all about.

Memory. Let’s face it that many of us have a hard time remembering certain things, particularly as we get older. If you’re like me you may rely heavily on post-it notes stuck on the door so that you remember to get or do certain things before you walk out the house in the morning. Or, maybe a note stuck on a mirror somewhere? Or, perhaps you may stick a note on your steering wheel so that you remember a stop you need to make while you’re out and about for the day. If you’re in your 20s or just never do this, you may laugh at this but your day is coming! No, I’m kidding. J Not too long ago I used to hear about people who stuck notes around their homes so that they could remember to do important things and I’d laugh. Now I’m like the post-it note queen! Ha ha ha! If someone gifts me with post-its it’s almost like receiving Bath and Body Works (that’s a well known line of scented body care products for those who don’t know). For my birthday one year I had a boss who along with some other things gave me a pack of multicolor post-it notes in the shape of a butterfly (she knows my love of butterflies). I treasure the idea someone came up with for this idea of notes with a sticky backing! Okay…so enough about the sticky notes. How’s your memory when it comes to things you NEED to remember to retain your job? How are you doing in the area of your relationships due to your ability to remember even the smallest things? Has your memory caused you to lose some opportunities? We all fall short sometimes in our ability to recall things but if we suffered a chronic problem with recalling things that would pose some serious problems.

The brain is so very complex and I believe one of the most extraordinary things we could have ever been given. Even with all the medicines that the medical profession has discovered, no one has come up with a 100% way to combat memory loss. It doesn’t matter your IQ, your level of wisdom, where you think you fall on the level of brain power in comparison to others.  If your brain was to ever shut down you would not have the power to do anything about it. So, take this thought and be grateful to God for the mercy and grace that He gives you every morning and throughout your day to remember everything that you NEED to remember to function in your day. And if you have to rely on some post-it notes for some things (ha ha!) be thankful that you can even REMEMBER to give yourself a note! J