Sending “thank you” notes is pretty much a thing of the past. Today, it is simple to thank people via text message, email, or a quick telephone call. Yet, I have been shocked a few times at how people do not say thank you at all.

Amid all the chaos, outside noise, and busyness of life, it is easy to forget the faithfulness of God. Today, I am going to start something, and I invite you to join me. I am going to keep a thanksgiving log from now until the end of the year. For me, I will keep my journal on a page on my desktop. At the end of each day, I will write an entry thanking God for something specific that day. Periodically, I want to go back to the beginning and read all the Lord has done. Those will be “fresh” thank yous.

Today, via this blog, I wish to write a brief thank you letter to God.

Dear God,

There are just too many days that I generally say thank you, but I want to thank you for specific things.

1. Thank you for the gift of life itself, for breath in my lungs. Today is a gift from you.
2. Thank you for finding me in my grandmother’s front yard and setting up a divine appointment to call me to yourself. Looking back, I can see your fingerprints all over that divine setup. It was the beginning of a healing journey from the wounds I carried as a child.
3. Thank you for First Assembly in Sumter, South Carolina. Many of those people took an interest in this snotty-nosed little girl and helped me on the journey. Margareta Poulas, the Richardsons, and others changed my life. I especially remember a woman who slipped me money to buy shoes. Mine were ragged. I do not know her, but Heaven knows her.
4. Thank you for getting me to Southeastern University. I had no hopes or aspirations that I would go off to a Christian university five hundred miles away. You got me there, and you miraculously paid the bill.
5. Thank you for the divine appointment to see from a distance the man who would become my husband. Here we are fifty-five years, three sons, and nine grandchildren later. It has been your grace that carried us through the hard seasons.
6. Thank you for divine supply so many times when we had more month than money. You have been so faithful to meet our needs. There was food on the table and a roof over our heads. There have been lean times and times of plenty. You were faithful no matter the season.
7. Thank you that when I faced what doctors were sure was ovarian cancer, you were there to say, “I don’t think so.” That was thirty years ago, and I am still blessed with life.
8. You gave us amazing strength as we faced the death of a son. The pain was great, but your presence was greater. Some days were dark, but you were always the light. Thank you!
9. Thank you for the amazing opportunity you gave this ordinary girl to speak your word all over this nation and in other nations. What a ride! I stand amazed.
10. Thank you for so many people along the way who have made the journey sweeter. I am sitting here now remembering them by name.
11. Thank you that when things did not go as planned, you protected me, redirected me, and never let go of me.
12. Dear God, thank You for Your constant presence, unconditional love, and the countless seen and unseen blessings in my life. I am deeply grateful.

As I write this, I feel like John who wrote, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” – John 21:25

Today, I encourage you to count your blessings. Start writing them down.

I will soon be seventy-five years old. May the melody in my heart burst forth every day, as it did by the writer Johnson Oatman. I wanted to select only one stanza of his song “Count Your Blessings.” I could not! These words describe life, its ups and downs, and the faithfulness of God.

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, ev’ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings, money cannot buy,
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.”

A young man stepped to the podium to sing a solo in the morning service. I sat there in the front row, and along with the congregation, awaited a song that would cause us to look heavenward. Oh boy! The music was in one key and he was in another. He left the music way behind, and nothing fit together. Instead of causing us to be lifted heavenward, we all wished he would hurry and finish, which he did, way before the background music!

In a conversation I learned that the man loved to sing but was tone death. He wanted us to be receptive, but the wrong tone killed the whole thing. The problem was not the message but the tone. Tone has to do with using different elements: volume, speed, pitch of voice, body language, and gestures, etc., to name a few.

In my own life, tone is something of which I must be aware. Even though what I am saying might be right, the tone might cause it to come across wrong.

We are in a time when we must boldly stand for truth. BOLDLY! I refuse to accept what the Bible does not accept. I understand everyone is not going to like my stand or agree with me. What I do not want to do is add fuel to the fire by my tone.

We live in a time of too much anger and hostility. Couples scream and yell at each other. Politicians berate one another. Christians “tell each other off.”   Facebook posts are often rudely stated. People are quick to give the middle finger of fellowship. Parents declare that the only way their children will listen is if they yell. (By the way, that is only true if you conditioned them that way.)  

When it comes to dealing with others, God is saying to sing in one key, yet we often we sing in whatever key we want. That is a tone problem.

I do not want to be an angry, ugly, red-faced, condescending, name-calling, arrogant child of God. I want to stand boldly for God. I want to have the best relationships I can. I want to be a good communicator of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I might be rejected, but I do not want it to be because of my tone. I want to set the right tone. How about you?

Proverbs 15:1: A soft answer calms anger, but a harsh word stirs up more fury. Proverbs 16:24: Kind words are like a sweet honeycomb; they are good for the body and heal the spirit.

“My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.” Psalm 5:3

Are you a morning person or a night owl? We hear that question a lot. It would be a massive understatement for me to say I am not a morning person. I come into total agreement with  Proverbs 27:14, “A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse!” Can I get an amen!

Of course, I am married to Mr. Cheerful, Mr. Sunshine, Mr. Smiley, Mr. Talker. He is all of those things!

Over the years, I am much better at morning. I have learned to move on from hazy and lazy much more quickly. I am still mostly quiet for the first hour. I move a little slowly that first hour. But when I must do morning, I can!

One thing I have embraced is that the quicker I get my thoughts on God, the better I face my day. When my feet hit the floor, I make a beeline to the kitchen to start the coffee, stop by the bathroom, and then make my bed. Next, I sit with God a few minutes while I sip my coffee. I fill my ears, heart, and mind with songs of worship. I begin to talk to the Lord about my day, my love for Him, my family, and other things in my heart. After reading a couple of short devotions, I stop and think of the Lord.

How do you begin your mornings? Getting up at the very last minute, then rushing to get to the day’s responsibilities? Dreading the day? Perusing social media?

The psalmist said that early in the morning, he set his thoughts on God. This is not a “guilt-trip” devotion for those who spend time with God later in the day. It is encouragement to set your eyes upon the Lord, if only for five minutes, in the morning. Starting my day with Him reminds me that I walk with God through the day. It offers me such sweet fellowship with the King of kings.

David said, “I will look up.”

Giving those few minutes to God will prepare us for the day ahead. On any given day, we encounter places that test us, try us, or upset up. That is simply a fact of living on this earth. There is something special about looking up shortly after getting up! It helps with the stresses of the day. If you are not looking up to Him each morning, commit to doing that. Start today. What a difference it makes.

In a world that seems to be filled with anger and discontent, it is easy to concentrate on the negatives in life. I came across a story that is a breath of fresh air. If God lets me live to be the age of this woman, I hope I can leave deposits of joy around me. The following story is so heartwarming.

“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time,” she said. This story about a ninety-two-year-old woman has been shared over two hundred thousand times. When you read it, I think you will understand why. It all has to do with her attitude.

Here is what Alex Steblowsky wrote about Peggy Jones:

This petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home yesterday. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet curtains that had been hung on her window.

“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.” Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it is how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It is a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.”

“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I have stored away, just for this time in my life. She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw from what you have put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories.”

And with a smile, she said, “Remember the five simple rules to be happy.”

Free your heart from hatred.
Free your mind from worries.
Live simply.
Give more.
Expect less and enjoy every moment.

Today is a good day to arrange our minds to acknowledge and testify of the goodness of God in our lives. The Apostle Paul wrote powerful words in Philippians 4:11-13. As you read them, do so with an awareness of Paul’s circumstances when he wrote them. Paul was in a dreary, cold, dark prison simply for being a follower of Christ and preaching the Good News.

“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”