Join me here every Thursday during the months of November and December for some encouragement and some understanding… lets help each other look to God to help us get through the holidays victoriously and with gratitude!

Here’s how you can join me:

1. Read this week’s entry here at CHK.
2. Copy the picture
3. Make your own Attitude of Gratitude post on your own blog using the picture.
4. Come back here and enter your blog url into the Linky so everyone can read it!

The Linky is at the bottom of this post.

Children love holidays. While I am stressing and hurrying, counting pennies and putting together menus, the children are excited, happy and joyful! this is the time of year when even my grown children have a skip in their step and are all smiles.

The fact that children are generally care-free is only a small part of why they are happy during the holidays.  The main thing is that children still have an open heart to receive what comes to them and a way of looking at the sweet things in life instead of stressing over the details.

This year, I want to be like a little child when it comes to holidays. I want to find beauty, wonder and loveliness in everything around me. To do that I realize I may have to lay down some expectations. Everything may not be perfect about my house or my meal, and that’s going to have to be OK. I’ll do my best, but I won’t make the trappings the center of my celebration. Because I want to bask in family and think about how thankful I am to have what God has given me.

What about you? Would you like to enjoy the holidays like a child? Would you share that with me?
Here’s how to do that:
1. Read this week’s entry here at CHK.
2. Copy the picture
3. Make your own Attitude of Gratitude post on your own blog using the picture.
4. Come back here and enter your blog url into the Linky below so everyone can read it!

Does your attitude need adjusting? This is the season when its so easy to slip on over into jealousy, self-pity, worry and stress. I find that I often need a good talking-to. So I make myself pray consistently each day for strength, grace, a loving nature, peace and an Attitude of Gratitude toward God.

Join me here every Thursday during the months of November and December for some encouragement and some understanding… lets help each other look to God to help us get through the holidays victoriously and with gratitude!

Here’s how you can join me:

1. Read this week’s entry here at CHK.
2. Copy the picture
3. Make your own Attitude of Gratitude post on your own blog using the picture.
4. Come back here and enter your blog url into the Linky so everyone can read it!

The Linky is at the bottom of this post.

Have you ever stopped to think that there are literally thousands of blessings and reasons to be thankful every day? If you were to really count your blessings you’d be at it 24/7. Isn’t that what God wants us to do? “Always be thankful” says 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

As God’s people, we are to be continually thankful in all things. That means when things are tough, we give thanks. When things are good, we give thanks. For me that works itself out in this way: I thank God and praise Him that the circumstances that I find myself in at any given moment are His perfect will for me at that time.

That doesn’t mean I always like what is going on in my life. But it means that I can rest in the knowledge that this is part of God’s plan for my life and I don’t have to be afraid.

The other way ‘thanks’ works its way out in my life is that I look for small things to be thankful for.

After I’ve thanked God for the obvious things in my life, I like to turn to the quite, hidden things and give thanks. Things like the peacefulness of the morning, the beauty of a melody, the charm of a little child’s smile.

There are any number of these little things to be grateful for. I find that it keeps me on an even keel, helps me be content when I give thanks for the little, hidden things.

That’s my challenge to you today. Slow down. Look around and observe, really see those beautiful little things for which you are thankful. And then, give thanks! Those things are in your life because your heavenly Father ordained them to be there!

Now its your turn:
1. Read this week’s entry here at CHK.
2. Copy the picture
3. Make your own Attitude of Gratitude post on your own blog using the picture.
4. Come back here and enter your blog url into the Linky so everyone can read it!

Does your attitude need adjusting?  This is the season when its so easy to slip on over into jealousy, self-pity, worry and stress. I find that I often need a good talking-to.  So I make myself pray consistently each day for strength, grace, a loving nature, peace and an Attitude of Gratitude toward God. 

Join me here every Thursday during  the months of November and  December for some encouragement and some understanding… lets help each other look to God to help us get through the holidays victoriously and with gratitude!

Here’s How:
Copy the image here and put it on your blog.
Enter the url of your Attitude of Gratitude post in the Mcklinky below and share how you are cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude this year.

Is it just me, or has our world become less and less thankful as a whole in the past 40 years or so? I think in general it has and that’s a really sad thought. Last night as children came to the door to get candy, only one child said “Thank you”.  And that child brightened my day with those words!

God wants us to be thankful, He wants our thanksgiving.

 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
Psalm 100:1-5

Look around. What is it that God wants you to be thankful for? List those things and name them back to Him, giving thanks. Having a hard time getting started? Let me help you:  your eyes, because you’re reading this on a computer. The computer! Your mind, to be able to process what He is saying to you right now. Your health. Don’t have good health? You’re alive aren’t you?  While there is life, there is hope.

Bless His name, because every thing you have that you consider a blessing, you have it because He has given it to you!

Join me every Thursday in cultivating an Attitude Of Gratitude. Sign up below. Lets start showing our gratitude for what God has done in our lives!

Copy the image here and put it on your blog.
Enter the url of your Attitude of Gratitude post in the Mcklinky below and share how you are cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude this year

This is the last installment of Attitude Of Gratitude. I’ve enjoyed encouraging you and myself and focusing my mind on blessings this Christmas. If you’ve joined in with me here, at the CHK message board or on FaceBook, I appreciate it!

Here’s how to participate:
Here’s How:
Copy the image here and put it on your blog, linking back to this post.
Enter the url of your Attitude of Gratitude post in the Mcklinky below and share how you are cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude this year.

If you do not have a blog, just make your Attitude Of Gratitude entry here in a comment, or post it on Face Book in a Note!

I
woke up this morning with the realization that its Christmas Eve, and just like every Christmas Eve before, I felt that anticipation of what the day was and what the next day will be.
When I was a child, the anticipation was exquisite. I knew without a doubt that Christmas Day was coming! And you had better believe that I behaved. I was good as gold because I knew I must be. The big event was going to come, it was going to happen whether I was good or not, but if I was good, if I was good from my heart, then the Day would be better, and hold more joys for me.

I’m thankful that every day is like Christmas Eve as I follow Jesus. Every day I have the glorious opportunity to look forward to His coming and every day I have the duty and blessing to be the person He wants me to be. Every day is like the Eve of my life in eternity. And every day He gives me here is a gift, not to be rushed through and ill-spent, but cherished, lived fully and with expectancy of the Day to come!

Today, I work, live and wait expectantly for Christmas Day. The excitement I felt as a child is different, but I still feel it. The knowledge that tomorrow will be Christmas Day still motivates me, cheers me, inspires me.

Father, forgive me for not waking up and realizing that every day is Christmas Eve. Forgive me when I get so caught up in the day to day things that I neglect the fact that one day Christmas Eve will have passed and Christmas Day will dawn.

Now its your turn. What is Christmas Eve like at your house, what is it like in your heart? Do you still feel a thrill to know its the day before Christmas? Are you looking expectantly for Jesus to come again, or have you dropped the ball somehow? How can you start looking for His coming again?