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Tea Time Tuesday
I love this season of Thanksgiving — corn bread dressing, pecan pie, a cranberry and cream cheese gelatin salad, pumpkin pie, whipped cream.
We are also going to be living through the next days of finding out results of the election, wars and rumors of wars, and we all have our own personal pressures and issues to live with. We all need a shot of hope. Yet, I am convinced more than ever that when I practice gratefulness, that God is good and that He is at work in our world every day and in my life through every season, I find peace. But even more, my friends and children are watching my life to see how I am modeling that trust and thankful heart of faith.
Christian virtue is not just knowing the definition, but it is in putting virtue actively in the presence of every moment. The virtue of trust, thanks to God in all things, must be acted out in a real life to be understood and copied.
Every morning here in Oxford, I sneak downstairs to make a cup of tea before anyone needs me. I am staying with Sarah, Thomas, and my 4 grandchildren. But every morning, I have a visitor who slips quietly into my room, and with a sheepish smile says, “I’m here! Are you ready for me?”
Lilian, my granddaughter, sits on my chair with me. We chat, sip tea, and eventually she reads aloud and I marvel at her newfound skill. But always, we start out with, “What are the two things you are thankful for today?” It is my hope that this practice will give her the gift of learning to be thankful and choosing gratitude as a life habit.
Harvard psychology research shows gratitude is strongly, consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish, remember good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, build strong relationships.
I want to help train the pathways of my precious grandchild to grow strong in being thankful for her own long term well being — scripture tells us, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Depression and a broken spirit literally make the body vulnerable to illness.
Thankfulness brings health, complaining destroys.
God bless you this week, friends.