I'm thankful for your life and colour;
how you paint this world awake each morning and sing it all back to sleep with the eve.
Nature proves your outlasting forgiveness; your reckless blessing of radiance.
The soil is marked with the spill of your redemption blood.
Your spirit cannot be contained, caught or carried away
Your vivacity won’t be bleached or bordered to the point of no return.
You can call forth worlds from a single, glowing cinder
You sew new songs together from the ashes of death
Where we see the deforestation of the soul,
you see a wealth in wait;
wide open space for new existence to dwell
When I've torn out my own hair
and poisoned my own gardens
Your pardon appears in renewal, yet again
Where we see an end, where we see finality;
you are the only finality;
you see the perfect place for a fresh start.
Thank you.
L. Miles
https://www.facebook.com/pg/l.milescreative/posts/
A thankful heart
In days like these, I’ve been more and more thankful for the persistent life, love and colour of our God.
In days like these, that feel confusing and bleak, I’m thankful for the clarity and spirit of God.
In days like these, where it’s easy to lose yourself in the panic and pandemonium, I’m thankful for the peace and unwavering stability of God.
In days like these, I’m thankful, and I’m thankful for days like these. It’s days like these that give us a thankfulness for the everyday; normality or not.
Thankfulness is one of the biggest keys to a happy life
Thankfulness doesn’t say, “oh, something sucks, so my entire life sucks,” or, “something hard has happened, so I have nothing to be grateful for.”
Thankfulness says, “regardless of the difficulty of my life right now, I am blessed to be alive, and I have so many things to be thankful for, even on hard days.”
It seeks out the bright in life, and doesn’t let go of that, even when the sky gets cloudy.
Thankfulness sees hard days as the opportunity for growth and learning. Thankfulness sees hard days as only the beginning; it stands on the truth that each new day holds the opportunity and potential for change, big or small.
A thankful heart can acknowledge the pain of hard times and can feel that pain with the confidence of knowing that it is not the end. Thankfulness will not let darkness have the final say.
Practice thankfulness
Try it out; be intentionally thankful every day for a few weeks.
Write down a list every morning with your coffee of all the things you have to be thankful for that will fit on one page.
For example;
Laura’s gratitude entry for 05/06/20;
1. I’m thankful for where I live. I have a roof over my head and everything I need, as well as the most beautiful view of the Coast.
2. I’m thankful I’m able to go to university and that I love what I study.
3. I’m thankful for coffee and tea and biscuits.
4. I’m thankful for the way the sunlight streams into my windows on warm, sunny mornings.
Etc, etc…
When I started doing this every day, all the difficult stuff I had to do felt so much more manageable.
I was constantly creating a different perspective in my mind and reminding myself that I have so much to be grateful for, no matter what.
Although this year has been one of the most unstable and unsure in quite some time, let’s make use of the rest of 2020.
Let’s make 2020 the year we became more; more understanding, more loving, more thankful.
Laura Murphy is an excitable and fast-paced Brit, living in Australia. She can’t sit still; she has a serious addiction to sudoku, and she can be won over by a good cup of tea and a laugh. Studying to become a doctor, she is expectant and excited to see all that God is going to do with her life.
