The healing power of Gratitude

I have been advised to use the next seven days, culminating on Thanksgiving Day, to take a moment each day to express gratitude for my many blessings, whether or not they are deserved. I look upon blessings, not as rewards, but as challenges to do better, to be better, to seek better today than yesterday, to make tomorrow a greater blessing than today. In that perspective, I am grateful for the advice of Malachi, that last prophet of the Old Testament, whose wisdom included the recommendation to not just expect blessings, but to prepare a place for them, lest most be wasted for the lack of preparing for them. If we hope for a circle of friends, we'd best prepare the circle such that they have place to dwell in our hearts if they cannot be with us, or prepare the table in advance of their coming. This year, that may not be as possible in person as in years past, or, hopefully, as will be in the future. Prepare anyway, or the blessing will be wasted. Sermon over.

So, today, I am grateful for the many expressions of friendship from you. Though I personally know none of you, I'm grateful for your comments, ideas, suggestions, and even your challenges. You make me a better person, and I hope that is reciprocal. Tomorrow, another gratitude.

I challenge you to do the same, and see if, after the week, we are not all healed of some of our misgivings, trials, ills, and just plain malaise. just by being more grateful then than we are today.

As braindead as your posts were previously (they were most certainly on permanent life-support), this one holds a great amount of wisdom.

The human mind is designed to consume indefinitely, be it due to desire or boredom. If you allow it, it will consume until you are unable to, and you will be left miserable, regardless of how much you attained in the process.

Thus, it is important, as you say, to remember to be grateful in life, for the many things that are taken for granted, such as the ability to communicate with people around the world and share comments/ideas/suggestions, all with several clicks of a mouse. Even as little as 30 years ago, websites and their potential did not exist, and it is important to remember how wonderful and fantastic it is to be here.

We should be grateful for the friends that we make here, and remember the technology required to make this a reality.

As you begin with the failing tactic of personal attack, can I believe the rest? Give it a rest, my friend, it is your opinion that mine is braindead, but then, does not familiarity breed contempt? Careful that your mirror does not get in the way of your barns. Have a civil tongue

Nope. It's an attack on the quality of your previous posts, not on you. Unless you think that your posts are you, then it's not a personal attack.

Anyway, your OP is better to the point where I will start reading what you write again.

2nd edition Gratitude:
 
I am, on this day in particular, grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, he who, more than all others of his gifts, atoned for me. It was not just for my sins, only on the condition that I repent and change my heart [for if my heart has not changed, nor have my actions, and I turn confession into a revolving door, and no one is forgiven for that. It takes more than just personal admission that Jesus is the Christ. I must change my heart to become more Christlike today than yesterday, and so on, day by day. But he atoned for so much more than that. He atoned for my sorrows, my suffering, my mistakes that are not sins, but manage to make a mess of things that should be orderly and at peace. My personal belief is that he even atoned for Satan. It is an infinite atonement, and that is for more than just sin.
 
My family crest’s motto is “le mieux que je peux,”or “the best that I can.” A few years ago, when a re-drew the crest and framed it, I added to the motto, “pour vous,”or, “for you.” It just seemed like the right thing to do. The best that I can for, just seems selfish, and I hope God smiles on my addition, for what purpose in there in doing my best if it does not help someone else, and maybe God will smile a little more broadly that I repent so that my place her is more appreciated by others than just myself, and God be willing to forgive just a little more because I’m trying to put my heart in the right place. As James Madison once wrote, “If men were angels, we would not need government.” Would that be a wonderful thing that we each care for one another and end our strife with one another?