Tag Archives: Gratitude

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Leveraging Faith

iStockphotos © Michel de Nijs

Sixteen hours in a car driving to and from Indiana for a wedding last weekend afforded me a good bit of time to reflect on the first six months of 2011. In the moments when my family dozed, one thought emerged almost as often as overpasses appeared on the horizon:

I had not “paused” as often as I hoped to this year.

My first inclination was to go through a long list of excuses why, and those familiar with my story might consider most to be legitimate. Regardless of the excuses, though, one question lingered.

Is there a correlation between pausing and being grateful?

When you live your life at a pace life dictates, you miss what opportunities are present to go deeper, past those surface level observations. At the surface everything is a blur, much like when you lie in bed at night and the day just plays through your head like a movie preview trailer. But if you truly desire to see the real story being written by your life, you need to make an effort to look past the obvious and find the picture God is painting.

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Thanksgiving and Gratitude

I was having a conversation with a close friend the other night and she shared with me the story of an uncle who passed away from cancer this past summer. As I listened to story after story I couldn’t help but notice the impact his life had made on hers. But it didn’t end there; sprinkled in each story was tales of how other family members lives were touched in similar ways. Over and over I heard, “you just can’t comprehend how special he made everyone feel, each in our own individual unique way” or “when I was with him it made me feel so important every time I saw him.” As I was driving home, that conversation caused me to pause and take inventory of the people in my life, past and present, who left similar marks on my life.

The thing I love about Thanksgiving is the fact that the only exchange which takes place is the exchange of stories in the midst of sharing our time with friends and loved ones. So before settling into your Thanksgiving routine this week, the food and the football, I challenge you to take a similar inventory of those who left a mark on your life, and to do it prior to Thursday.

-Who is the person or persons who impacted your life in such a way that it left such a mark on your life that you now feel compelled to share it with them?  

-And if they are no longer with you, is there someone close to them whose Thanksgiving would be so much more meaningful, and may be even a little less painful,  if you shared with them the difference that their loved one made in your life?

-What’s stopping you?

Remember that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. So in that tradition….please don’t won’t let this Thanksgiving pass without sharing your appreciation to those who made a difference in your life. And I do hope you will leave a comment below about the person or persons whose life impacted yours so everyone who reads this post share in honoring them this Thanksgiving.

I’ll be the one to start in the comment section, but I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who have visited Leveraging Life the last four months. I know your world is a busy place, so for you to spare a moment or two and read what I post is something I value greatly.

So I thank each and every one of you and hope you have a Safe and Gratitude filled Thanksgiving!

~Tom

trusting God period

I hope you’ll stop back by on Wednesday as I put the Christmas twist on Worship Wednesday.

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