Gratitude Graphic

From Gratitude Graphic ©Helene Bergren. All Rights Reserved.

Thank You, Lord, for . . .

Ta-Da! My last post in the series about gratitude. I spent four hours last night making a very cool Adobe Illustrator file with stars and different-colored fonts of this non-exhaustive list of what I am thankful for. But, in none of the file versions I tried does the text show up readable enough in Blogger. Sigh. Maybe I'll make a homemade T-shirt with it or print it and have it framed. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of my non-technical side, I shall rejoice and be glad in this Friday. Blessings in Christ to you. Read on and see how abundantly blessed I am. It's a mix of the serious and light-hearted, generally in no particular order. I highly recommend this exercise of listing what brings praise and thanks to God into your heart. Enjoy.

Father Son Holy Spirit. Salvation in Jesus! My husband. Jessica. Daphne. David. The Family I grew up in. Baby feet. Baby hands. Baby smiles and giggles. Worship time at The Ridge. Hearing from my home the sound of children playing at recess on the school playground a few blocks away. The gift of life.

Indoor plumbing. Electricity. My faith. Modern medicine. My sponsor son, Jorge`. God as Savior, Healer, Provider, Leader, Counselor, Maker. His presence. My sisters. Plentiful food sources in America. My parents. The wisdom of earlier generations. Rainbows. Snuggling with hubby and children. Jokes my children make up. Artwork my children create.

Rumba panties on little girls. Little girls in black patent shoes. Tractor sounds little boys make when they play farm. The generally loud energy of little boys. Being home with my children for 12 years and counting. Umbrellas. The Bible. My spiritual gifts. Nehemiah’s example. Thunder and lightning. Mozart. Bach. Beethoven. Mancini. Casting Crowns. Newsboys. Rebecca St. James. Lilies of many colors. Milk. Roses. Daffodils. My parents’ farm. Growing up on a farm and in the country. Small group friends. Childhood friends. Electricity and running water. Cousins, dozens, and dozens!

The fruit of the Spirit in my life, and in the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Aunties and Uncles. My husband’s fix-it abilities – car, house, computers. Sleepovers as a child, and hosting them for my children today. Strawberries and memories of Grandma’s strawberry patch. Being born on Granddad’s birthday, and Jessica being born on Grandma and Granddad’s wedding anniversary. Daphne coming home from the hospital on her dad’s birthday two days after her birth. David’s birthday so close to one of my sister’s. Enjoying (mostly) the miracle of three full-term pregnancies. Sunrises and sunsets. Jesus’ bodily resurrection.

Experiencing time on the Pacific and the Atlantic. Mission trips to the Navajo Nation and the border of Mexico. God’s pure wisdom. My health. Mercy & Grace. Swingsets. Nieces and nephews. Godly examples to follow in my church and circle of friends. Grandpa Fred. Piano lessons from Aunt Irene, and having her as my great aunt.

Peace that passes understanding. Crest Whitening Strips. That 10^th Anniversary trip to Tahiti. Sweet, sweet neighbors. Seeing friends who have moved away. Living in a safe community. Teaching children. AWANA for my kids. Talking about God, and my walk with the Lord with others. College. How God provides for our family through my husband great brain and hard work. The examples of Daniel and Joseph. Learning how God is working in other people’s lives, hearing what exactly He’s up to with others. Bubblegum.

20^th Wedding Anniversary family vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Apple pie. Psalms. Making birthday cakes for my children. Talking about Bible passages with my husband. Photography. Writing. That God would work through me as a vessel. That my kids enjoy school. Giving speeches, or teaching, and how God calms me for presentations. Impressionist Art. How God has poured out His grace on me in so many ways. Being a nurturer. Decorating. Working in my landscaping and with flowers. Fun, sweet Aunt Helen.

Smiling at strangers, and getting smiles back. Rocking babies. Reading to children. Colors – Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Lavendar, Aqua, Seafoam Green, Sunset Orange, Burgundy, Lime Green. Steak. My mom. My dad. The worship example of Mary of Bethany. That I still have both my parents. Memories of fun times with my in-laws. Having the name of the grandmother I never met for my first name. Sharing my middle name with the grandma I knew and grew up loving so dearly, and knowing I’ll be reunited with her in Heaven.

Prairie Ridge Church. Christian books. Compassion International. Samaritan’s Purse. Gospel for Asia. Thru the Bible. Oneplace.com. My literacy. Flexible, creative work. Dates with my husband. Peppy cars. Vacations in Chicago. Lollipops. Tootsie Pops. Great authors. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion. The Constitution. Godly leadership. Make-Up. Seeing Churchill Downs. The smell of harvest in Iowa. Horses. Kittens. Puppies. Jo-Jo the love dog. Nachos. A good joke or riddle. Medical advances.

Praising God - openly and freely in the U.S. A really good run. Trees. Our safe neighborhood. Chick conversations. A good love story. Funny movies. Getting to see foals and calves born. Piglets. Red or white barns. Caring for others. Towels warm from the dryer. Chocolate milk. Neapolitan ice cream.

Chai. Iowa, beautiful land. Polka dots. Stripes. Other people’s patience with me. The promise of Heaven for all who confess with their mouths Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.

©Helene Bergren. All Rights Reserved.

 

Reading List: Radical Gratitude

I confess, when it comes to my relationship with my Lord and Savior, I’ve been thinking about my manners. Thankfulness, specifically.

How often do I praise and thank my Giver of Life? Did I learn those manners my mom taught me — and do I respond to the Spirit with heartfelt graciousness in my friendship with God?

I need good ideas, reminders and inspiration about that. I want gratitude to be my first response, part of my personality and my integrity. I found a book that helps.

In Radical Gratitude, Ellen Vaughn brings me as the reader into the very stories of all-surpassing gratitude. As I read and re-read them, I feel the Holy Spirit burning in my own heart, sparking thankfulness for my own salvation, life and blessings.

The author shares her thankfulness for deliverance from clinical depression. She shares stories of medical healings, and stories of thankfulness through grief. A story from Russia, and from Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp. Perspectives from the famous, and from God’s Word.

Radical Gratitude relays the experience of Martin Jenco, a priest and director of Catholic Relief Services in Beirut, Lebanon, during the mid-1980s. While in Hezbollah captivity, his only possession was a button — yeah, like for your shirt. He used the button as a meditative reminder during his captivity in 1984 and 1985.

But God spoke to Jenco, and convicted him to cling only to Himself, which meant giving up the button. God wanted to show the priest that He was with him always, even when Jenco was stuffed in the trunk of a car.

God, using Vaughn’s book, awakened me more fully to the deep importance of gratitude, too.

“Cultivating a grateful heart is not just an add-on nicety, a civil tip of the hat to God as we steamroll through our day. A posture of purposeful, perpetual thanks to God is absolutely central to Christian character. It gives glory to Him. It is the key defense against Satan’s temptations to despair, distrust, dysfunction. It protects us from sin and self. It is the hallmark of heaven. It does not exist in hell.”

(See page 51, Radical Gratitude)

Read Vaughn’s book for the good habits of grateful people she teaches. Read it for the Scripture examples she embeds.

Read Radical Gratitude to grasp the equal importance of gratitude for the daily gifts, and for the fireworks displays of God’s power.

Just read it.

Discussion Questions

What are you thankful for today?

What events relayed in the Bible touch your heart and spark gratitude in your life?

Is anything/What is getting in the way of radical gratitude in your life?

Are there other Christian books you’ve read about gratitude that you would recommend?

Above photo of Saylorville Lake in central Iowa. Photo by Helene Bergren

©Helene Bergren. All Rights Reserved.

Gratitude, Please and Thank You

This blog entry kicks-off a four-part series about gratitude.

When it comes to gratitude, I want to be like a horn of plenty with thankfulness spilling out of me. Hmmm. That’s not seasonally appropriate for an August blog entry.

When it comes to gratitude, I want to be like a rainbow, showing multi-colored gratefulness for the varied blessings in my life. Well, that’s corny.

OK. When it comes to gratitude, I want to wear a thankful attitude like my favorite, comfy pair of blue jeans, albeit holey, and patched up with heart appliqués. That’s a little more me.

I want the gratitude I have for all my blessings to be genuine, and natural. I want it to fit me well.

During a college class, the Ph.D. teaching asked a room full of budding young journalists a question that would prompt us to look at ourselves in a new way. He asked whether or not we realized that we were among the richest in the world because we were sitting where we were, in a university classroom.

He pointed out that worldwide, education, especially college, was for the elite, and we were it. Oh, sure, bring out the global peer measuring stick, why don’t you, prof?

I can’t remember how the topic was germane to our class, but the conversation has remained with me through the years. The instructor was, and is, absolutely right about the privilege of education.

That’s just one example of how God has brought good fortune my way.

I’m not neglected or forgotten. God blesses me every day, through my family, my friends, His Word, the sights and sounds of nature, my health and so much more.

However, I struggle with wanting something different, something newer, prettier, bigger, in some cases something more practical, sometimes something more sparkly or just more of something.

On the intangible side, many days bring me longing for more fulfillment, more excitement, a better or different kind of relationship with so-and-so, more talent, or more brains. Why this struggle, when I know I’m blessed?

It’s not because I don’t enjoy my life, and appreciate it overall. It’s not like I walk around saying or believing, “Woe is me.” And it is not because I lack the peace that comes from a relationship with Jesus.

I could spiritualize, and suggest my feelings stem from really living as a stranger here on Earth. Sure, that factors into discontent. Or maybe it’s spiritual warfare, and Satan’s getting at my weak spot that his minions see. Sure, that can add to it.

But I must have a diva side. (I know. I’m technically too old to be a diva — and my clothes aren’t as shiny.) Essentially, I blame my own ungratefulness. Greed, materialism and selfishness come into play for me.

My own heart needs to grow in gratitude. Does yours?

To battle the side of me that forgets my blessings, I try a variety of activities. Many of these, I practice for a reason beyond the specific goal of becoming more thankful. I do them because I want to.

But here are my Gratitude Growers –

1. Praying for a grateful heart

2. Asking God to realign my priorities

3. Diving into word studies in the Bible related to thankfulness

4. Recording my blessings in a little gratitude notebook

5. Practicing the ACTS form of prayer journaling (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication)

6. Replaying mentally how my life is easier or better today than it was in other timeframes

7. Participating in mission trips

8. Reading about other cultures and social injustices globally

9. Sponsoring a child through Compassion International

10. Avoiding idleness (not to be confused with avoiding rest)

I know there’s no special formula to heart change. I can’t flip a switch and change in my own power. Still, coupled with my own heart’s willingness and genuine effort, the Holy Spirit works the transformation. It’s a journey.

And on this journey I will continue to do (my best at) what this verse shows:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

His love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV

In her book, Radical Gratitude, Ellen Vaughn covers the topic of thankfulness thoroughly, and convincingly. In my next blog post, I will spotlight that book, and share how some of her points touched my heart. In the third post, I will touch on gratitude, hope and character. In the fourth and final post, I will share a personal gratitude list, with a mix of the serious and the light-hearted.

©Helene Bergren. All Rights Reserved.

Photo at top is in the public domain.

Raising Up My Kids

I love it when God gives me a peek into my children’s spiritual walks.

While on Mission Navajo during spring break, my friend, spunky, sweet, redheaded Lindsey, prepared a beautiful devotion about thankfulness. Her dramatic reading brought the Living Word into focus, particularly for our daughter, Daphne, a sixth grader at the time.

“What would it mean if we truly lived thankfully,” Lindsay asked to spur discussion.

As a grown-up I was thinking about the poverty on the Reservation and the spiritual needs, but a middle schooler up past bedtime responded to the question. “Well, then we would be thankful for our troubles even. You know,” Daphne said.

Her response left me gaping, and teary. And proud. The moment sowed my own thankfulness for the Holy Spirit’s work in my daughter’s heart, and for the opportunity to take part in a family mission trip.

My girl understands. In some way, God captured her heart with this lesson, and she knows one part of life that God uses to build us into people of integrity — difficulties. Praise God for that lesson in my daughter.

Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.

Proverbs 2:3-7 NLT

Summer brought my son’s ninth birthday. This kid loves ramping bikes with the older neighbor boy, trying back flips on the diving board, listening to music on his MP3 player, and playing basketball and soccer. School’s cool, too, in his eyes, but if all learning could take place at Running and Gunning Outdoor University, all the better.

But last week at lunch he showed his spiritual thinking cap, and popped up with a comment that came out of nowhere. “Why do we even have B.C.? It doesn’t make any sense, because Jesus has always been. I don’t get it.” Then he returned to feasting on his quesadilla or pizza or whatever the fare was.

I confess, I considered explaining the concept of measuring time before Jesus walked on Earth. But I just shook my head, and not a sound escaped my mouth. “You’re right, David. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Why correct a boy who understands the eternal nature of His Lord and Savior? What a moment. What a gift.

Then there’s the teenager. Oh, boy! (Insert smile, not grouchy face.) Jessica’s dad and I have watched her during the last year as she has developed a passion for social justice. Since she was little, she has tended to stick up for the little guy, been moved by the perils of the weak and wanted to help others.

Jess has been incorporating major world problems into her reading selections and discussing the issues of fair trade, childhood slavery and more with her school and church friends.

Jess attended a missionary presentation this spring at our church home, Prairie Ridge Church, Ankeny, Iowa (ridgelife.org). A New Zealander shared the story of a Christian mission business, a slave-prostitute rescue operation in Kolkata, India, called Freeset (freesetglobal.com).

The missionary told stories of women rescued from a dirty, urban, miles-long prostitution line. She explained the abuse they endured, the emotional scars and healing, the skills the women developed after their rescue and their spiritual paths.

Jessica and her dear friend even talked with the speaker, one of the Freeset founders. She blessed them with encouragement and answered their questions. I watched as she spoke to them and listened to them in truth and sincerity, with grace and gratitude.

Encounters and landmark moments like these show me how important my mothering role is. How much it matters to open doors in my kids’ lives to allow God to work in them, and show them His work in others. It brings to life the realization that my children belong to God, and he has graciously loaned them to me. What a difference they can make. What praise they can bring to Him, as they allow Him to work through them.

The loving, the teaching, the praying, the playing, my husband and I, along with many others, pour into my kids — and you into yours — matters. It makes an impact. It is not in vain. Praise God. Together, let’s keep raising up our kids for Him.

We are not preaching about ourselves. Our message is that Jesus Christ is Lord. He also sent us to be your servants. The Scriptures say, "God commanded light to shine in the dark." Now God is shining in our hearts to let you know that his glory is seen in Jesus Christ.

We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us.

2 Cor. 4:5-7 CEV



©Helene Bergren. All Rights Reserved.