Psalm 100
Shout praises to the LORD, everyone on this earth. Be joyful and sing as you come in to worship the LORD! You know the LORD is God! He created us, and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep in his pasture. Be thankful and praise the LORD as you enter his temple. The LORD is good! His love and faithfulness will last forever.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Recently I visited my grandmother at the retirement center where she now lives. It was time for lunch, and I visited with the ladies at her table while they waited to be served… all women I’ve known most, if not all, of my life. The ladies were all excited about their lunch – chicken livers! But when the meals were served, they each had a boneless chicken breast… and they were not happy. It seems that they had misunderstood… they were served the “daily lunch special.” Chicken livers was an option for those who didn’t want the “special.” But the ladies got it backwards… and they were very disappointed.
The food the ladies were served looked delicious, and I encouraged them to give it a try. And later, when I phoned my grandmother, we talked about how fortunate these seniors are to have such a wonderful, comfortable, safe place to live… a place where they have great care, delicious food, air conditioning in summer and heat in winter… and so much more. And I began to think about how often we are so busy complaining about something that is wrong that we fail to recognize all that is right!
It should be enough that we belong to God… that we are His people and the sheep in His pasture. Just knowing that we belong to God and He is caring for our every need should fill us with joy and make us want to “shout praises to the LORD!” But we – and I am right smack in the middle of this group – tend to find the glass half empty and stew about the things that are wrong in our little worlds. We should be busy listing our blessings and thanking God for all He does for us.
There is an e-mail message that circulates from time to time that starts off: "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.” I do not know who to credit for these comments. But they are great thoughts.
We have so many reasons to be thankful and to give God praise… and truly, so very little about which to complain. Yet we are often far more eager to tell anyone who will ask what is wrong with our lives than what is right. It’s time to change this! We need to be busy counting our blessings and praising God for all He does for us.
We need to be thankful for the house that needs cleaning… the less-than-restful night of sleep in a clean, warm bed and the clothing on our backs that may have come from a thrift store… because even when things are not up to our “standards” or desires, we are still incredibly blessed. And when we finally get our “chicken liver dinner,”… as the ladies at the retirement center did the next day… we need to thank God for blessing us even when we gripe!
What has been your “chicken liver dinner” lately? What will you praise God for today?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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