An Attitude of Gratitude

During the Thanksgiving season, as I was spending time with the Lord in prayer, he placed a word in my heart - gratitude (thankfulness). God showed me how, before he healed the sick, performed miracles, or cast out demons, Jesus thanked God.  At the time, my eyes were opened to Jesus' way of approaching God, but I didn't do anything about it. It was a new revelation and one I didn't fully understand.

On Sunday, December 29th, I went to church with my sister Enid. She attends The Brooklyn Tabernacle, and every time I come to New York, I enjoy attending worship service with her. When one walks into the BT sanctuary, one enters into a room of praise and worship, not only worship by the choir, but worship and adoration by all who are in attendance. People are standing and singing songs of praise to God as one! Even if you don't know the songs, the words are on the prompters, so you have no excuse for not joining in. Surely, I thought, this is the key to a great worship experience: entering God's court with praises to our Lord!

The message was brought by Pastor Tim Dilena, the Associate Pastor at BT.  Pastor Dilena preached about a word the Lord had placed in his heart the previous night.  The word was thanks. When Pastor Dilena began to speak, my mind started racing. Surely I had heard this before, I thought. As he began quoting scripture it clicked in my mind. This is what I'd heard from the Lord during Thanksgiving! As I listened and took notes, I understood that I needed to share this with those in my circle.

So, here is the word God wants me to share: one should have an attitude of gratitude. In other words, one should be thankful in every circumstance be it good or bad.  According to the message shared by Pastor Dilena, "we are overdue with our thanks to God. Thanks should come before a miracle; before starting off with 'I need,' one should begin with 'thank you"; before one asks, one should give thanks.

Why is giving thanks important?  Pastor Dilena pointed out several scriptures underlining this point. The first is Luke 17:12-19, the story of the 10 lepers healed of leprosy. Of the ten lepers, only one returned to give thanks. According to Pastor Dilena, "when one feels entitled, one will never be thankful". Pay close attention to verse 19. Jesus told the leper his faith had made him well, This thankful leper not only received cleansing, but salvation as well.  God notices gratitude, and being thankful multiplies ones blessings!

The second is in John 11:41-42, the scripture referencing Lazarus' resurrection. Note that Jesus gave thanks to God. He didn't thank him for resurrecting Lazarus or for raising him from the dead. Here's the point, 'when one is thankful, dead things are brought to life'. Do you have a dream you think will never materialize or a business you think is on the point of failing?   Try thanking God for your dream to come through, not after it becomes reality! I'm not saying that God is a sugar daddy who will give you what you want when you thank him beforehand. We tend to go to God with demands and even threats, expecting he'll give us what we want or else we'll backslide, or stop believing in him. Well, it doesn't work like that. Our goal should be to believe in him, have a relationship with him, know him, love him, be obedient to him, and trust him. Once this occurs, we can believe God for our blessings and thank him before they materialize.

The third scripture is Matthew 15:32-39, the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus gave thanks prior to breaking bread and feeding the hungry.  The key message here is, "thankfulness multiplies what you have" You've heard it said many times, 'when the praises go up, the blessings, come down'.

So, as we enter into 2014, it is my wish we will think about and change the way we approach God. I pray we will approach him with an attitude of gratefulness and thank him before we even make our requests known to him. I pray that giving thanks will be viewed as your passport to accessing the blessings of God. Would you give thanks to God before you ask for anything and watch what happens?

Though I didn't follow up the revelation I received during Thanksgiving by writing about it, I did create a jpeg image depicting my thankfulness to God.  Here it is below. 

I close by wishing you blessings for a prosperous and joyous New Year filled with the blessings of the Lord.

"Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6 (NRSV)

Season of Peace and Love

December is my favorite month for many reasons. For one, it is my birth month (and one of my sisters, baby brother and mother). It is also the month we celebrate Mother's Day in my country of birth (December 8th). Finally, it is the month in which we celebrate the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is the season of love and peace to all on earth. It is a time to celebrate the birth of He who came to this world to die, Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb offering who willingly gave his life in exchange for ours. It all started at a time like this, Christmas, when a young virgin gave birth to the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. Christmas is a time for us to get together and celebrate his birth; to give thanks for the gift he became to the world. It is a time for all to gather together and forget our differences and celebrate as one this joyous occasion. It is a time to dig deep into our hearts and find the love that is there waiting to be poured out for humankind.

In the spirit of Christmas, we make or buy Christmas cards, we bake cookies, cakes and other goodies; we clean up and prepare our homes in preparation of those who might be coming over for a meal on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and/or New Years Day, we buy gifts, sometimes forgetting that gift-giving is really not the purpose of the season.  I am reminded of the Advent study book we read just a few weeks ago, titled "Christmas Is Not Your Birthday," by Mike Slaughter.  It is about God's scandalous love for humankind, a love that has no bounds; a love that is generous toward us, and which, according to Slaughter, should be about our lives being transformed to become the ears, eyes, hands, and wallets of Christ, to be obedient to his calling, and to live our lives in service to those who cannot help themselves.

It is my hope that this Christmas finds you surrounded by the love and joy the season brings, but also reminds you that Christmas is not your birthday, but the birthday of the boy Jesus, God's gift to us.

Peace and love!

Pre-printed Christmas cards for clients

Handcrafted Cards cut via MTC with Silhouette Cameo

Happy Friday afternoon blog friends!

I hope you haven't missed me too much, lol. I know, I keep promising to have posts more often, but with the schedule I keep, it is not an easy thing to do.  Working P/T for two churches and then coming home to my 91-year old mother is not easy!  My day starts very early; I'm up at 5:00 in order to get to work by 6:30 (I start at 7:00 am). Why so early, because before I leave I have to make sure my mom's taken one pill (she needs this on an empty stomach before breakfast), that she's taken a shower and dressed. I then make her breakfast and have to insure her other meds are on the table to be taken with her meal.  Why do I do all this? Well, my mother also suffers from some dementia, and when she first wakes, she's extremely confused and doesn't know what she should be doing.  It is true what is said about the elderly: "once a man, twice a child". When I follow this routine, it not only helps me, it helps her as well.  If I don't do this, I will come home and find her still in bed, in her PJs, unkempt. With this schedule though, I come home to an alert mother, who is coherent and able to carry on a conversation without a mental hiccup.

Once I come home (I'm off work at 11:00 and home by 11:30 am) I prepare her lunch and go about taking care of things such as cooking dinner, cleaning or washing, and spending time in studying the Bible.  I also sometimes (if time permits) take a nap.  With the exception of Tuesday and Friday, I'm at my church in the evenings. On Monday, I lead a small group Bible Study.  We're currently reading "When I Lay My Isaac Down," by Carol Kent.  If you haven't read it, I recommend you purchase and read it. If ever you find yourself facing trials or going through life changing events in your life, this book will give you the tools you need to handle them.  Anyway, back to what I was saying. On Wednesdays I have choir rehearsal, on Thursdays dance rehearsal (praise dancing), Saturday mornings praise and worship, then on Sundays my duties vary: On first Sunday, I teach Children's Church (8:00 am only); on third Sundays I sing and dance (both at the 8:00 and 11:00 am services) and on fourth Sunday, I sing again.

Phew! That's a lot, isn't it? Seriously, I don't mind. Everything I do at church brings me joy and fulfillment and in all of this I still find time to create! If I'm not making greeting cards, I'm putting together a flyer for some event or the other.  These last two are my passion. I love being creative. I get a thrill from seeing the joy in other's faces when I create a card or make a flyer or invitation for their event.  For all of these reasons it is so hard to get on this computer and write!  But, I will try, my friends. Just bear with me as I get myself more organized to do so.

I don't want to leave you without showing off some of my creations.  Though I haven't been blogging, I do create. Here are a few of my newest cards. I made collages as I've made so many in the past few months.

 The images above are digi stamps by Robert Jackson Fine Arts. I used Gimp to make changes to the images (paint, patterns) as well as Copics (in some cases).  I also used Washi tape and paper piercing (the image in the lower bottom left and right).












These cards on the right are the birthday, get well bunch. I used MTC to cut out the boot, but prior to cutting, I changed the pattern on the boot and the shoe in Gimp using their pre-installed leopard pattern.  The Dr. Who card was for, you guessed it, a doctor friend, lol! As for the Fight like a Girl card, well October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I have a few friends who've been fighting this disease and was inspired to make this card for them.

This other set of cards below are again Robert Jackson digis. A few of them are exclusive to me (I have ideas about the type of image I want and I order them to my specifications).  This is the case for the two male figure cards below.  Once more I used Gimp to create the look I want for the digis, then I print and cut in MTC. I made two copies of the images so I could use mounting stickers to give them a 3D look.

For the ladies, I used Copics to paint the bodies as well as the dress of the lady in blue.  For the other lady, I used Washi tape wrapped around the paper pierced skirt and top. I then wrapped the same Washi around the background paper.

 Here are the final four.  For the moustache and bow tie card, I used my Cameo Silhouette to cut.  The Sister Act card digi is from Mo's.  I used Copics to paint the image and Stickles to embellish.