What Are You Reading? Gratitude

well good morning and happy Monday before Thanksgiving yes yeah good morning and we're both here we are both here this morning for those of you who don't remember me my name is Jacqueline Hyder yes and I'm Megan Sacklin I know you see us every now and then on Monday mornings together right that's right but we wanted to talk to you today about Thanksgiving since this is Thanksgiving week. And we have so much for which we can be grateful. But I like to listen to like a Bible reading plan. This is not a what are you reading, but what are you listening to? I've had a few of those where I've said. Well, I like to listen to like a Bible reading plan when I'm like putting on my makeup. So I found one on gratitude last week and it's like a little five-day gratitude challenge. And it's on the like the Bible app. Yeah. And it reads it to you. So that's nice too. this one happens to have a video that goes with it so basically but this morning as i was driving into work actually listening to that i it was it was talking about how gratitude is a learned skill right i had never really i mean i know we have to cultivate gratitude but i never really thought about the fact it's a learned skill which makes sense because like kids like their first words are no and mine not thank you yeah so i remember teaching my children my my babies before they could talk to say thank you um and please and do sign language before they could even verbalize so they would they would say thank you thank you know that sort of thing and so it's it's just like we have to to teach that to our children we really have to teach it to our own our own heart yeah teach our heart to respond that way and so this morning uh this morning that verse was this in psalm 92 verses 1 through 2 it says it is good to give thanks to the lord to sing praises to your name oh most high to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness at night and i love that it talked about morning and night because we declare his steadfast love his goodness his grace throughout the day in the morning and then at night we remember and count his faithfulness and so i started thinking about because part of this gratitude journal deal is that you put down at least three things a day that you're thankful for yeah and so i was like okay what am thankful for today well i'm thankful for um that i get to work here honestly i'm thankful that i get to work at my church and to have loving kind godly women to work with and so that's one thing i'm thankful for i'm thankful for our pastor who teaches from god's word yes he really um uses expository teaching to teach us his uh god's word and that is so that is not anything to take for granted no and then i'm of course thankful for my dear sweet husband who is always so loving and kind and patient with me oh he is a patient man but those were three things that i was grateful for um and i just i love i loved the fact that um in in today's um reading it it talked about declaring um our that he declares his love for us um but we declare our love for him and our gratitude and our gratefulness and you know studies have shown that gratitude cultivating a grateful heart helps to reduce anxiety which we could all use a little of that right so those are just some things i'm learning about gratitude tell me some things you're learning well so it's interesting yeah it is what are you reading and so this morning mine was actually tied into psalm 77. And what's neat is I love when God just shows you things that you're learning in your Bible study and then you read something else and you can kind of connect them together and you get a little bit excited. And so in Psalm 77, this is actually more of a psalm of lament, more of a communal lament. And I think if we take a look at the world, it's very easy to have a communal lament of the things that are going on. And so while it is Thanksgiving week and we are very grateful, we need to remember the things that we can be grateful for. And so this says in Psalm 77 verses 10 and 11. Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High. I'm going to stop right there. So if you are in my class with Christy McLellan, she always says, and if you're coming to the Preparing Room event, I know she's probably going to do this. She talks about how the right hand is the hand of favor. And she will usually instruct women to go through and you put your right hand on the shoulder of the woman beside you and you pray and do the hand of favor. So all through scripture. So in this scripture, it says, then I said, I will appeal to this to the years of the right hand so the years of favor of the most high i will remember the deeds of the lord yes i will remember your wonders of old and so even when we're in those seasons we're wondering what is going on you know we can remember that god's got a plan and he has a bigger purpose than we can imagine and it also made me think of those people that and it could either be your first thanksgiving with an empty chair or it could be your 10th i mean I think of my grandmother it's been six years now and you know just that empty chair and so it can still be hard you know but to be grateful not only for the time God gave you with them but that you have because not everybody has people in their lives that they can truly miss like that and so so if you're in that season you know you can be in a season of gratitude and also gratitude of memory memory of who God is what he has done and what he is still doing for his people but also memory of those that we have loved and lost gratitude gratitude and grief yes yeah and so that's kind of where I landed this week a little bit well I love that you said that you know that empty chair or that place of emptiness you know it is we can be it's hard to be grateful in those moments we can be grateful for all those memories and for the way that your grandmother poured into your life your whole life like you wouldn't be who you are you wouldn't be the man that we know i wouldn't be yes without her your grandmother and so we can think and remember and um be grateful for those times but we can also be grateful for the fact that we loved so much that we experienced that kind of intensity and love that we are in a state of grief yeah because we miss that and not everybody can say that they loved and we can be grateful for the right hand of god's favor that we'll get to see them again that's right so which is what is exciting and so that's kind of where i land um that landed this week and so i would encourage you like jacqueline was doing just this week you know we've got monday tuesday wednesday thursday is thanksgiving and so just maybe for these three four days just take time to really sit in prayer or to just you know sit and when i say sit in prayer just talk to god and just thank him for three things each day that you are just grateful for that's right so that's right and we are praying for you like like megan said we know that this can be a really tough season for so many of you but um do you want to say just a prayer over those who are struggling yes yeah and i have particular particular one in mind i don't know if sam watches this but i'm thinking of sam and just the loss that she's had recently so yes heavenly father lord we um just come before you today we are grateful that you are a god that shows um favor lord that you that you have blessed your people so much but god i also come before you and ask for any women who are listening to my voice who have lost loved ones this year or lord it could even be five years ten years lord that you would just remind them of the good memories lord and that's what a blessing it is to love and to cherish and to miss that person but god i also know that you comfort those who are in grief and so i ask that your presence would be so overwhelming that you would remind them that there is joy and there is gratitude even when you're hurting lord and so god we just come before you and we lay these women before you replace them before you and just ask that you would be their comfort and their strength this thanksgiving and that you would surprise them that the day is actually better than they thought it was going to be maybe they're dreading that day but actually they can celebrate the day of thanksgiving so lord would you just be them not only through thanksgiving but all the way through christmas where this season can be very tender so lord we just ask that in your son jesus christ's name we pray amen amen well we hope that you have a wonderful thanksgiving and we will see you next week yes

Originally published at warren.church.