When you give,
Give thanks;
For what was given,
Was given to give.
For all the blessings around
And what we seek to take;
When you give,
Give thanks.
Life is always about giving rather than taking. From the very foundation of the world God made man and gave Him a garden to tend to. He then gave him animals. Then God saw that all that was good. However, in the midst of that, He realizes that the man was alone and so He gave him a woman.
Later we learnt again that God gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins. Falsely accused, striped and shamed, beaten and torn, he bore our pain. Then lifted on a cross with nails in His hands, He gave his life so we could live.
He keeps giving and giving even though we so ungratefully take His many blessings. The only time it seems that God hears from us is when there is a disaster and He gets blamed for that, yet still he keeps giving. His example might seem far fetch, but in simple things we can bridge the gap, in helping others and giving too, our opportunity is to give, as God would do.
In spite of all that's happening around the world, there are many things for us to be thankful for. However, when life is reasonably comfortable we forget so often to give thanks. Let's not lose sight of the daily opportunity to give thanks even as we celebrate Thanksgiving.
To give thanks to the baker up the street,
Or to the trucker, our food to eat,
Our employer, our income for meat,
The automobile maker, our feet to keep.
On I can go, connecting each we know
For many each day, their lives to pay.
In search of peace,
Decisions, that gives us comfort to be
In our homes, work, church and play.
All around, the blessings we have,
The people that makes possible the plan,
Take the time to someone today,
Say thank you, for giving and living God's way.
There is always an opportunity for us to seek to take and be people that seemly always want to take. However, if we take a moment and look outside ourselves and search for people that are in our lives, our who we come in contact with and simply say thank you then we can truly enjoy the rich rewards of giving rather than taking.
The mere fact that you are able to read this article is an opportunity also to thank the one that took the time to teach you to read. No matter how simple it might seem, that is something we can be thankful for.
Live each day with that in mind,
That a life is forever incline
To bring you to another level you see
To be the person you ought to be.
For each of us are connected to grow
The meaning of giving, our love to show
For every deed, let it be carefully considered
That the giving we give is graciously delivered.
Thank you for taking the time to read and may the blessings this day your life revealed. Let every person you seek to give, may the giving be a gift given in love. To help, to share, to open your heart and let them grow, give without expectation. For God gave and He gives for He loves us still and every offering is for us to live, within His guidelines to honour Him when you give, give thanks at will.
O. Stephen Peart is a writer and author of Released Expressions – the journey begins.
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