I’ll be frank, I’m not sure what to say right now… I’ve been pretty tired this week. However, it’s been a joyful week as well. I’ve been learning contentment and honesty and surrender. I’ve been learning thankfulness.
In my copy of the devotional Jesus Calling, I read today that I should let thankfulness temper my thoughts. What a wonderful idea. Thankfulness keeps my attitude headed in a positive direction. Thankfulness keeps me from complaining.
Complaining is a dangerous sin. It fundamentally changes your attitude toward God. The Israelites complained in the wilderness and it drove God crazy. They didn’t trust Him even after all that He had done for them. God is looking for trusting hearts. Thankfulness sets us on the path of trust. Also, because God is faithful and does what He says, trust in Him results in joy.
Oh, so, I recently came across a study of water and how words, both spoken and written, affect its makeup. In this experiment, positive words would cause the water, when frozen, to form beautiful crystals under a microscope; whereas negative words would cause the water to freeze in random and disfigured patterns. One of the suggested applications of this experiment was that since our bodies are roughly 70% water, our words have a huge impact on our makeup as humans.
I feel like this ties together well with the idea of attitude—thankfulness leading to trust leading to joy. Joy starts with giving thanks. What we say has an impact on ourselves and other people, so let’s start giving thanks more often.
Okay, that just about sums up what I’ve been thinking about.