Grateful for An Amazing October 2018

It has been a very longed time since I blogged in this space. I will do another blog post to cover that soon. Here is my offering for this month.

I am beyond thankful

I am grateful

My gratitude is overflowing in praise

Like a fountain jetting heavenwards

October 2018 has been amazing with memory-making moments

beyond my wildest imaginations.

A month of growing deeper roots

A month of intimate communion and fellowship

A month of an increasing revelation of the knowledge of God’s will

That has been my greatest desire for the month;

the recompense and restoration my soul desperately longed for.

October 2017 was memorable,

but not in the way I could have ever imagined

I watched dreams consumed in fire

Expectations laid in cinders of hurts and disappointment

I writhed in the pain of false accusations and vilification

I groaned in voiceless cry

Many nights, my tears flowed unstoppable

Though I knew they were stored up in a bottle before God

and recorded in His Book of remembrance,

I didn’t want them, not in October, not ever.

What was my crime?

What was my offence that I should be cut down and shredded in tiny pieces?

My heart longed for an answer as the pain I never knew possible

seared like a hot blade through deep places within me.

That was when I knew without any doubt that hurting people hurt others.

You run a risk of getting hurt when you hug a porcupine.

The sharp edges of their jagged broken pieces can inflict untold pain.

I had two option;

Heal, Arise and Shine

or Let offense fester and become bitter.

I couldn’t afford to trade my years in God’s sacred school of brokenness

for the emptiness of self-vindication.

To let offense fester and become bitter was too costly to be an option

I chose to heal, to arise and to shine.

As months went by

I watched God’s gold of grace infused into the lines of my brokenness

until it shone with brilliance.

I learnt that God could make beautiful things from my broken pieces.

He did so in a painstaking way;

the healing was slow but determined and definite.

He lifted my head like the horn of the unicorn

He turned towards me and smiled at me

He filled me with joy beyond description

He gave me mighty deliverance and victory

in places I never imagined

When October 2018 showed up in the horizon

I had only one desire;

To experience God in a brand new and refreshing way

unmarred with pain or tears.

I wanted to be free to share the testimony of His faithfulness

I desired to speak of His amazing goodness to me unhindered.

He opened doors for me to do that.

I can testify that God’s finger reached down to deep places

only He could reach

His touch like soldering gun joined together my broken pieces.

His beauty shone through the lines of my healed brokenness

His fingers scripted a new chapter in His story of my life

New Psalms flowed out of my caves of solitude

You can never vindicate yourself

Don’t bother to try

The only One who is perfect and just in all His ways

is the only One who vindicates

He fights the battle for us in the places where we have no strength

He is the advocate who defends the helpless and the hurting

I have experienced the goodness of God in the last 12 months,

in ways I could never have imagined or foreseen.

I found diamond along the shores beaten by fierce storms

I saw hope glittering with unfading light in a dark tunnel

I heard God’s favor speaking for me where I had no voice

I experienced His mighty arm stretched out to carry me above mountains

Crushed, hard pressed and squeezed,

I am oozing with fragrant oil of hope and grace.

I will embrace the great fights for they produce great faith

I will embrace the great tests for they are the precursors of great testimonies

I will not run from great trials for with them comes great triumphs.

I am full of testimonies

I am full of gratitude

My heart overflows with adoration

My praise is gushing like a fountain

from a heart that has experienced

the healing and restoration only God can accomplish.

I will give thanks to God

for His goodness and wonderful works to me,

His precious daughter.

Thank You, Lord, for an amazing month.

I am Grace In Motion

I am Hope personified

I am a Living Proof of promised made and promise fulfilled

I am the object of His undying and faithful love.

I am sure you have also experienced the goodness of God in one sphere of your life or the other. Share with us in the comment and let us rejoice with you.

And if you are still waiting for God in a specific area of your life, stay the course of faith. Don't give up on God. Don't give up on hope. God is able to do for you just what He says He would do, in His own time and in His way.

Christmas With A Difference

Take all the glory, all the glory, Almighty God

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord

For Your faithfulness, power and Your love

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord

By the grace of God, I have had the opportunity to celebrate many Christmases. Each of one of them has been unique, even when we did just about the same things. But this year, Christmas has a unique and special meaning to me. Never have I so much appreciated and be filled with this much joy sharing Christmas with my husband and our two sons.

Jesus loved me so much,

He left His throne in glory

He took the form of man

He walked the surface of the earth

And He felt every pain, distress

and discomfort ever known to man

What amazing love

That brought Jesus to us on earth

What overwhelming joy

Filling our hearts to overflowing

Just to know that Jesus is the reason

I can celebrate this Christmas.

Indeed, the best gift I could ever ask for; is the grace and mercy of God in giving me this Christmas with the three wonderful men He blessed my life with. Honestly, the joy of spending this Christmas rejoicing and reveling in the awesome love God so extravagantly lavished on us as individuals and as a family is indescribable.

It has been an eventful year. There have been times this year when the thought of being here rejoicing at Christmas was simply a hope and a dream. But we got to know the superabundant grace of God in keeping us through the darkest vale. We experienced His peace which garrisoned our hearts against all agitating fears. We saw the Lord fight our battles and He gave us victory in our trials and struggles.

Through it all, our sons matured into strong, supportive and God-fearing young men. Personally, it is joy inexpressible for me to be blessed with these fine young men who gave me many reasons to fight for life, and not to give up. I love them so much and words can not express my gratitude to God for blessing my life with them.

What can I say unto God for the special gift of a strong and God-fearing man, He gave me as a husband, who stood by my side through the thick and the thin. Together we have been to the mountain and to the valley. Together, we walked through the floods and through the fire, the good Lord kept us. You don’t even want to imagine how many times I wondered, "how does he maintain a composure of peace through the challenges and difficult situations, which marked the landscape of our lives this year?" I still can not imagine how he coped talking to someone who could not answer him back, walking away from my bedside knowing only by faith that it is by the grace of God that I will be kept in life or coming back home to an empty bed-room and not being sure when he will be able to share that space again.

If I spend the each day of the rest of my life thanking God for this wonderful and courageous man, it will not be enough to express my gratitude and appreciation to God for my blessing my life with him.

God fulfilled our much desired and longed for dream this month. We went for a vacation together, just the two of us, after over 15 years. That was a blissful time away together. Just to see my husband relaxed and rested was priceless.

 

Christmas is a special time

to thank the Lord

for the gift of love

that binds our heart

through all the seasons of the year.

- Dayspring Devotions: A Christmas Prayer.

I can say without any iota of doubt that it has been God's gift of unfailing love that kept our hearts through all the seasons of our lives this year in particular and in the last twenty years. That is why I can not but overflow with thanks, praise and gratitude to God this Christmas.

Christmas 2013 is different and unique, I have so much to be thankful for. It is about appreciating the goodness of God in surrounding me with loving and caring family and friends. If I want to begin to write about how God used our families and friends to support and uphold us these past years, I will need another post to do justice to it.

I am truly blessed with a wonderful family - our parents, our brothers and sisters, and their spouses and children. They held us up in prayers and stood in the gap for hours. The phone calls were countless, and their encouragement was profound. Only God can truly bless and reward them.

Our friends showed us what brotherly (and sisterly) love is all about. Friends who expended of themselves and gave themselves no rest until they saw the glory of God on display upon our lives. God Who owes no man will surely be their recompense and great reward.

On Christmas eve, we had friends in the house for a night of Christmas Carols singing. We sang joyfully unto God, shared testimonies and fellowship with one another. More friends came to share fellowship with us on Christmas day. We acknowledged God's faithfulness in our lives and in our countries. The turkey came out fine. We have opened the gaily-wrapped gifts and cleared up the torn wrapping papers - some people don’t have the patience to unwrap their gifts without tearing the wrapping papers.

As I wrote this post, I pondered again over the events of the past year and all I can say is that behind every cloud, there has been a silver lining. And the song playing in my heart has been:

"…. For Your faithfulness, power and Your love,

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord."

Take All The Glory

Each moment of this season has been profoundly moving  and reflective. He who is capable of deep and reflective reasoning will be full of gratitude. I hope you too can look back into 2013 and as you reflect on the events of your life this year, I pray that you will identify many reasons to fall upon your knees and sing: For Your faithfulness, power and Your love, take all the glory Almighty God.

Please feel free to share your testimonies in the comment box below and let us give praise to God on your behalf.

May the reality of God's unfailing and undying love for you fill your hearts with overflowing joy this Christmas and in the New Year, may this sure and guaranteed love hold your hearts in perfect peace.

Thank you all for being there for us and for standing with us in 2013. May the good God be your recompense and reward.

We Will Remember

We will remember, we will remember
We will remember the works of Your hands
We will stop and give you praise
For great is Thy faithfulness
 - Tommy Walker (2005)

Celebrating Life:

That's exactly what we have been doing since last weekend. On Sunday, September 29^th, my family and I together with our friends went before God to give thanks and lavish praises on Him as we remembered the works of His hands in our lives. It was a time of rejoicing, praising and dancing in the presence of God. It was a celebration of life and God's faithfulness.

We remembered where we were coming from, what we have been through and the victory God wrought on our behalf.

 We remembered that God has been our helper, our deliverer, our liberator and giver of life without end.

We stopped and gave Him praise for great is His faithfulness.

The praise and rejoicing continued on October 1^st (my birthday). It was an opportunity to celebrate life in the land of the living. We recalled the mercies, which God faithfully lavished on us this past year.

We remembered when we walked through life's darkest valley, that God was our joy, comfort and life sustainer.

Last night, my Sista and friend of almost 30 years stood by my bed. She recalled the last time she was standing at the same spot, a few months back at the end of March. It was a challenging time for me then. I was on the ventilator and coughing my chest out. She looked around the room and started to give praise and thanks to God.

Why?

The ventilator was gone. I was not struggling with breath. I was not coughing. I was not hanging to life.

The Paraphernalia:

for travels

short term outings

oxygen reservoirs under our stairway

And the place they were knows them no more. They are all gone. Hallelujah!

Celebrating Togetherness:

We used the opportunity to celebrate our 21^st wedding anniversary which we missed on April 23^rd. I was in coma on that day.

 

April 23rd, 1992

Twenty-one and half years later - Sept 29th, 2013

We remembered that throughout the 21+ years of our marriage, God has been our shelter and our peace in the midst of the storm.

Our Boys. Our Joy. Our Blessing:

We remembered how God kept them strong through it all. They have been so supportive. I praise God for blessing our lives with these fine young men.

Giving Thanks:

But then I recall all You have done, O LORD;

I remember Your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about Your mighty works.

Ps 77:11, 12

We shouted Hosanna and Hallelujah to the One from Whom all blessing flows, Whose glory has been put on display in our lives. Our friends joined us to shout that our God is good and that He is the faithful One.

Your Turn:

Now it is your turn. 

Will you take time to remember the good works that God has done in your life in 2013 alone? 

Will you stop and give Him praise? 

God has surely given you reasons to be glad. So this is a good time to lavish praises on Him. You can also share with us in the comment box below what God has done for you.

While you are at it, please pause for a moment and give thanks to God on our behalf. He has been good to us. We can't say it enough or thank Him enough.

Pleased to share with you Tommy Walker's "We Will Remember" 

I love this song and I have used the lyrics in preparing this blog post.

Blessings be multiplied to you and yours. May your life daily touch lives for good.

Profuse in Praise

Who am I that You are mindful of me
That You hear me, when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me
How You love me, it's amazing. - Israel Houghton

How many times in 2012 did I cry to the Lord? How many times did call upon His name this year?

Countless.

When the nights were long and dark. When buffeted, distressed and unable to rest. When I needed help, counsel and guidance. When I needed His touch. When I needed His presence.

He harkened to my cry. He heard me when I called and He answered me. He turned towards me and paid attention to me. He held me in the center of His watchful care.

I am so overwhelmed that the King of kings, the Lord of lords and the Creator of the Heavens and the earth is mindful of me. Who am I that He should be this mindful of me, that He knows my name, my every thought and hears me when I call upon Him.

I am captivated by the immensity of God's love for me.

My Response:

Praise, Praise and more Praise. Profuse praise. Overflowing, copious and superabundant praise. My praise shall ascend to the heavens like a sweet smelling perfume.

Praise the Lord O my soul and let all that is within me praise His holy name. Praise the King of Heavens, to His feet I bring my tributes. I who was ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven.

I command my soul to praise the Lord. I command my feet, my hands and my lips to praise the Lord. Let everything that has life and breath praise the Lord. I have life and I have breath, and I give praise to You, O God.

I will praise You while I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name - Ps 63:4

My mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. My mouth shall be filled with His praise and I will declare His splendor all day long. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Him (Ps 71: 8, 23). I will remember Him upon my bed when I rouse out of sleep at the crack of dawn, and I will meditate on His loving-kindness. For He has been my help.

Praise be to God. For it is good to sing praise to our God (Ps 14:1, 92:1). He is gracious and lovely. Praise is fitting for God. How pleasant and lovely it is to praise Him. It is appropriate to give praise.

What informs my praise? Why do I want to lavish so much praise on God?

Psalm 145 (The Message)

I lift you high in praise, my God, O  King!
    and I’ll bless your name into eternity.

² I’ll bless you every day,
    and keep it up from now to eternity.

³ God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough.
    There are no boundaries to his greatness.

⁵ Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking;
    I compose songs on your wonders.

⁶ Your marvelous doings are headline news;
    I could write a book full of the details of your greatness.

Praise is prompted by the unique nature of God. God has been generous. In response to His generosity, we want to honor God by giving praise and thanks to Him.

Praising God is a God-appointed calling. We have been formed to proclaim the praise of God (Is 43:21). Praise is both a duty and a delight (Ps 63: 3-8). An intimate relationship of a person with God is sufficient reason for praise.

God is Great:

He is infinite. His greatness is beyond what our human mind can fathom. We praise God because we know and acknowledge that God's greatness exceeds what our mind can grasp. God does great, unsearchable and marvelous things without number (Job 5:9).

In Ps 145, David praised God for His mighty acts, for His gracious provisions and for the way He responds to those who love Him. David is a man who knew what it means to be faced with challenging situations, to be betrayed, hunted, distressed and grieved. Yet despite the bad experiences he suffered, he was a man who knew how to praise God. He vowed to praise God everyday because He is great.

I will tell of the splendor of His majesty, meditate on them, and compose songs of praise about them.

God is Good:

God is good all the time. He put this song of praise in this heart of mine
- Don Moen

He is the definition of goodness. The epitome of all that is good. God's goodness is great and abundant. His works and words are of goodness and grace. He does good to all the children of men. He satisfies the desires of all those who fear Him.

Even when we do not understand all the plans He has for us. His very nature of being infinitely good is sufficient argument for us to praise Him as long as we exist, whatever situation we may be in.

I will lift up my hands in worship, in praise, in joy and in thanksgiving. I will celebrate God's abundant goodness.

God is Loving:

God is rich in love. He is full of loyal love. He is faithful to His promises. Everything He does is suffused with grace. Everything He does is right. The trademark of His works is love. God's love is truly precious. His love is enduring.

We can rejoice in the knowledge of His love and the assurance that this knowledge gives even if we do not momentarily feel it. There is satisfaction in praising God for His loyal love. It brings joy and comfort to the soul.

He listens to all who pray. He is near to all who call upon Him in truth. He hears the cry of those who fear Him. God is present everywhere. But He is near to those who call on Him. He is an ever present help in the time of need.

Overflowing with Praise:

My mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. My mouth shall be full of thanksgiving in response to the mercies received from God. Those who see His mercies in my life also should hear His praise from my lips. Openly I will make His glory known and tell of His goodness.

I want to employ the tongues of a million angels to praise the King of glory. I want to heap praise on God,  adorn Him, cloak Him and decorate Him with praise. I want to lavish praise on Him. Praise looks good on God.

I praise You O God from a grateful and thankful heart. I will praise You with my whole heart. Such praise has to be untainted by bitterness but from someone who is truly thankful.

It is a good day, a day to give thanks and praise to God. Let us join our friends in the US to pause and ponder on the goodness of God. Let us with a grateful and thankful heart give thanks and praise to God.

As we approach the end of 2012, it is a good time to reflect on His mercies this year, and with praise express our faith and confidence in Him to take care of all our desires, hopes and dreams for the year. He is able to do exceedingly more abundant than we can ask or imagine.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing your thanks to God in a song.

Make music and sing songs of thanks to the Lord.

Reference:

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/i/israel_houghton/#share

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/don_moen/god_is_good_all_the_time.html

http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/praise/

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/treasury-of-david/psalms-63-3.html

He Will Not Disappoint

"He will not disappoint you. It is not in His character to disappoint.

He will keep faith with you…."

This was a message from our family friend to me in response to my blog post - Cartwheels of Joy. He did not know the circumstances under which I wrote that article but the message was apposite. It was timely too.

It got me thinking. Do I know God for Who He really is? If yes, then I will know that

there are some things that God will simply NOT do.

It is not in His character neither is it an attribute of God to disappoint.

• He will not fail.
• He will not forsake or abandon.
• He will not let me fall.
• He will not let me down.
• He will not leave me alone.
• He will not lie.
• He will not go back on His promises. 

What does it mean to disappoint?

It means to fail to fulfil or satisfy the hopes, desires and expectations of someone.

- To prevent  hopes and expectations from being realized.

- To thwart or frustrate. To let down, forsake or abandon.

Disappointment is what the weary traveller in a sandy desert feels when he finds that the beautiful lake he saw from afar, for which he sought earnestly, is just an illusion—a mirage.

Disappointment is like a stream that runs dry at summer time or a spring that fails when most needed—hope is dashed, expectation is cut off and dreams are thwarted.

Well meaning friends and even close family members can disappoint us. Life can disappoint us when it is filled with challenges, trials and sorrow. We also in all our best intentions can disappoint others. People and circumstance can disappoint.

For 21 days, I was in the hospital fighting an infection with every possible intervention—an intense course of treatment and therapy. It was a rigorous schedule. At the end of it, we did not get the resolution we desired and waited expectantly for. I was disappointed.

For 21 days, we tried to unravel a knotty issue. One investigation after another, from one specialist unit to another. Some quite distressing. At the end of it, we did not get the clear answer we wanted. We still have to wait some more for the information needed to define the next steps. I was disappointed.

For a moment I wondered, how much more of this—

How much more can one person take?

Disappointment can lead to despair if hope is not anchored on a Solid Rock.

But we know from the Bible that God satisfies the longing soul (Ps 107:9). He fulfils the desires of those who fear Him (Ps145:19). There is surely a hope for us and our expectation shall not be cut off (Prov. 23:18).

And Romans 5:5 tells us that we have a hope that does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit whom He has given us.

"This hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us His Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love" - NLT

It thrilled my heart and filled me with joy to have this understanding of the character of my God and Father upon Whom my hope is anchored.

If I focus on the disappointment, I would loose sight of the many blessings and mercies God poured on me during the past 3 weeks and His miraculous interventions on my behalf.

I am amazed at the grace God has given unto me.

I am overwhelmed at the peace with which He held my heart against every agitating fear even when the storm was fiercest.

I am stunned at the joy He filled my heart with which caused me to sing aloud almost everyday in my hospital room to the amazement of the hospital staff and neighbouring patients.

In spite of all that was going on around me, God made me an amazement to all with the stability with which He anchored my heart. He strengthened my heart. He gave me the strength to endure. Ps 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord, He will strengthen your heart…" I can testify that He did just that for me.

We can go through trials, afflictions and difficult times with strength that is not our own, because we have the spirit of God inside of us and God in us is strengthening us.

The Christian hope is such that will be fulfilled. It will not disappoint. We are sustained in our trials and afflictions by the consciousness of the super abundant love of God poured out into our hearts under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Our hope is founded on the goodness and truth of God, therefore our expectation can not be cut off.

Like Job, we will not understand the whole picture or the plans God has for us but we know that he was able to maintain an eternal perspective. He maintained his integrity and faithfulness to God in spite of his great afflictions. He expressed an absolute confidence that God will vindicate him and he was not disappointed in this hope.

I can then ask myself this question:

Am I able to separate the physical reality of my life from the spiritual reality of my relationship with God?

To the extent that I can say with unswerving confidence that no matter what comes my way, my life is in God's hands and come what may happen to me physically, I know that God will not disappoint me.

I know God will not leave us alone in our struggles. I know He will always be with us in the difficulties and disappointments of life. In Christ, the battle is won and we have the victory.

As I focus on this attribute and character of God, I can call my soul to be still and know that He is God Who will not disappoint.

When the oceans rise and thunders roar

I will soar with You above the storm

Father, You are King above the flood

I will be still and know You are God.

(Still by Hillsong)

I can then joyfully sing:

With this breath You have given me

I will praise Your Holy name

As long as I have this breath

I will sing of Your love

I will sing of Your faithfulness

As long as I have this breath

I will sing Your praise

And when this breath is gone

I will join the saints in glory

To sing Your praise

Forever and ever more.

©Irene Olumese

I encourage you, dear friend, to rest on this infallible character of God.

I Took It For Granted

I did not know it is a gift—the ability to enjoy with gusto the sumptuous taste of a gourmet cuisine and pick out the rich blend of spices in it, or savour the simple delight of home-cooked meal.

I did not know it is a gift until even the best prepared meal tasted like sawdust and with tears I struggled to swallow it.

I did not know it is a gift—to take a whiff of the fragrance floating from a drop of a sweet floral perfume or the creamy aroma from the brilliant yellow banana or the fruity smell of the succulent orange-yellow mango.



http://goodfruitguide.co.uk/fruits/mangoes/calypso-mango



I did not know that to be a gift until I sniffed and sniffed, and found no difference between the three of them. The rich intoxicating flavour of the sweet mango and the long golden neck of J'Adore triggered only a memory.

A precious gift—just to draw a deep breath and savour the sweet freshness of the air after the rain.

No one told me it is a gift—to look with longing at the platter of delight rich in colours set before me, to scoop a spoonful, place it in my mouth, chew it, turn it around, savour it and swallow it.

I did not know this to be a gift too, until I listened to the lady who could not chew without excruciating pain and read the story of the one who could not swallow even a spoonful without reeling in agonizing pain. It was when I hungered for food, starred at it in front of me but could not eat it, only then did I valued the taste of good food and the song below had a new meaning to me. I wondered how many have food, and can eat but take that for granted.

Some have food but cannot eat.

Some can eat but have no food.

We have food and we can it.

Glory be to thee, O Lord.

I did not know how noisy the flow of air I breath in was until, for a brief moment, it was turned off, and silence became amazingly quiet. So quiet, I longed to hold on to it for much longer. I did not know this silence too is a gift.

Many precious gifts I receive every moment of each passing day. How so often I treat them with indifference because I have taken it for granted I would always have them. Until breathing took as much effort as running a marathon and as noisy as the blaring of the klaxon from the boat passing by on the Lake down the road.

Not ever again would I take for granted the precious gift of breath—the fuel for life. Now I know how precious the gift of breath is, I choose to use every breath He has given me to fuel a high praise due only to Him.

What about the precious gift of families and friends?

How often have we carelessly watch our relationships go stale or sour. We take for granted the precious people God has blessed our lives with. We complain about what they failed to do, how they fail to meet our unspoken expectations and magnify their shortcomings. We fail to appreciate the efforts they make and their strengths. And we expect them always to be there for us.

Make time and effort to appreciate those with whom you relate while you have them. Let them know you care while it has meaning to them. It is not a weakness to show you care about those God has blessed your life with it. It takes strength of character to show love without fear. Perfect love cast out fear. Your parents, son, daughter, sister, brother, wife and husband have been placed in your life for a special purpose. They are precious gifts of God to you. There will always be issues to deal with but we have to learn to separate the issues from the person, deal with the issues and cherish the moments we share together.

These moments you share making memories are precious. It is a gift. Appreciate God for it.

We plan for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and beyond. Many times without a thought. Yet we have tomorrow only if God wills. We take life for granted and fail to nurture it as a precious gift. We forget that the breath of life is but a wisp of vapour, a mist, we can not hold to it—it is given. It is a precious gift.

If you can pick up your jogging shoes, lace them up and go for a jog, you are without excuse, you are blessed. Do it now, don’t delay. You have a great gift of good health, strength and vitality.

Appreciate what you have today. Don’t wait until you have lost these gifts or at the brink of loosing it before you appreciate how precious they are.

I ask God for the grace to pause as often as possible each day to appreciate and give thanks for the many precious gifts I am blessed with, which I have taken for granted in the past.

Nudge me with the gentle touch of Your Holy Spirit, dear Lord, help me to take note of the blessings You daily pour into my life and appreciate them now. I don’t want to wait until something threatens them.

If I can cause you to pause for a moment today to count the many precious gifts you have taken for granted and for which you ought to give praise to God, then is my joy full.

Will you pause now and reflect on some of the blessings you have taken for granted? Will you take account of some of these precious gifts and give thanks to God for them?

Did you? If yes, share your experience in the comments box below.