Thankfulness - Gratitude is the attitude

I've watched It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas for a long time and I still find myself amazed at how much of a real difference every one of us makes. When I'm stressed or isolated it's harder to sense that I really am made in God's image. All of us are creative forces that add to or take away - all the time! I want to live to give God's love.

This weekend (Dec. 16) I'm speaking on the power of gratitude. Here are a couple thoughts I ran across in my study:

• Brennan Manning: “To live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness is to accept myself and everything that happens to me as a gift that’s good; it’s to understand that my very existence is an expression of praise and thanks to God.”
  

• Albert Schweitzer: "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."

• Cicero: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."

• Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."

• Buddha: "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."

• Paul (I Thessalonians 5:16-18) "Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."

If ingratitude is the opposite of gratitude and hatred is the opposite of love, how important is it that I live out God's gift of life with gratitude today?

Check out this popular advertisement on TV (You give a little love)