Begin With Thanks
“When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day.” ~ F. Sionil Jose
The best “recipe” for having a good day is to add the crucial ingredient of thankfulness. If, when we wake up in the morning, we thank God for the great gift of life that He has given to us, we focus ourselves on the need to embrace gratitude. That initial “thank you” is then much easier to follow up with other thank you’s throughout the day as well.
We can never be too grateful for God’s blessings.
Our gratitude helps us to be humble because our very thanks implies that something has come to us from outside ourselves as, indeed, is the case. Too often, our human nature tells us that we should rely on ourselves. If we achieve something, our nature tells us, it’s because we did it and we deserve it.
Let’s go back to the initial premise of thanking God upon awakening. Do we wake ourselves up to another day of life? The smart aleck among us might say, “Certainly. I set my own alarm and I get myself up.” Ah, but did you give yourself the life that you needed to get up? No. That came from God. Each day, each breath of each day, is a generous, bountiful, loving gift from God and should be acknowledged.
We can never be too grateful for God’s blessings.
Enjoy the day. Appreciate all that comes your way. Revel in the life that you have been given yet again. And know that it is not your own doing but a wonderful gift from a loving God.
FAITH ACTION: Before doing anything else, make sure to thank God for the beginning of each new day.