Christi: Welcome to the smiling at the future podcast. My name is Christi Rose and this is my pursuit to glean practical wisdom on, femininity homemaking, finances relationships, and singleness from the God-fearing men and women in my life. Hope you enjoy this journey with me as we learn to smile at the future.
Christi: Hello, thank you for coming back to listen to yet another episode. If you have questions or ideas for topics, please write to me at smiling at the future podcast at gmail.com, or you can send a message through our Instagram page. And if you feel so inclined and want to financially support the efforts here you can do that by clicking the patreon link in the episode description. Also, Happy Valentine’s Day. I know today can be somewhat tender for us ladies, but I’m confident that your heart will be lifted after you hear the sweet encouragement that Betty Price offers on how we can overflow with Thanksgiving in any season of life. So here is that conversation.
Christi: Welcome back Betty. It’s an honor to sit down with you again and chat about a topic that you exemplify so well in your own life. But before we get started, can you share with the listeners about yourself, if and where God has you in life and Ministry?
Betty: Well, hi I’m glad to be back with you. Where am I right now? I wonder that myself. Sometimes we just talked about my age last time I was there and I just turned 80 and I can’t even believe it, but I’m still teaching at the Masters University one class right now and really enjoying the girls getting to be with them and be a support to them and really involved in my church and loving that as well. And having the opportunity to connect with some neighbors and looking forward to talking to them about the Lord, more and more. So those are probably some of the main things that are going on for me right now.
Betty: Thanks Christi.
Christi: You’re welcome. Well, the topic we’re going to both chat about today as Christians, it should be the aroma of our lives: thankfulness. It’s not something that we do to check off a box on our to-do list and say, okay, I thought of my three things and I’m thankful for today and then we move on but it really is something that should pervade every part of our lives and scripture teaches something that we should be overflowing with. So I’m excited to learn from you today, how to live this out, better from the heart at the heart level. So our first question to get us started: Can you help us understand the connection between being thankful and being sound minded?
Betty: Yes, I think that when we know God and we know truth about him but that part is not just poured out in worship and Thanksgiving to him and we’re more focused on really what we don’t have. I think thankfulness and contentment go right together. They’re so tight in with each other and when we’re not thankful and we’re not content, we focus mainly on what we do not have rather than what we do have. And I think that leads to not really thinking well about most things in our lives.
Betty: It can be as though we’re thinking like, “oh yeah, Lord, I know. It’s a great thing that you save me, and I’m being Sanctified and I’ve been rescued from an eternity in hell, and you have given me all the riches in Christ and I’m and that’s great Lord, that’s really nice. But what I really want right now is the new house or what I really want is a better car or even what I really want is a husband.” And all of those things are good things to desire and to pray about, but honestly, they pale in comparison with who our God is and what he’s done for us and we can just lose so that when we’re thinking mainly on just what we want, our thinking is all mixed up.
Betty: And the thing that impacted me so much, many years ago, I was on staff at a large church and people would call the church and want to talk to a counselor or somebody on staff. And this young single gal came and I never seen her before and I think we only met two or three times. But after we chatted and she said that she was a Believer and I said, “So how can I try to be of help to you today?” And she said, she said, “Well, it’s early December and it’s coming to the end of the year and that means it’s Christmas and I just hate Christmas.” And I thought she said it with such a vehemence and I just thought that seems really strange. I mean, I think we all kind of hate all the commercialism and everything that gets thrown just celebrating Christmas that has nothing to do with our savior. But I thought, “Gosh, that seems really strange the way she’s reacting to all that.” I said, “But why would you hate Christmas?” And she said, “Well, Christmas always comes at the end of the year and it just represents one more year that God has not brought me a husband.”
Betty: It’s like, oh my goodness, how unsound her thinking has become because her priorities are so out of whack. It was a good thing for her to desire marriage and desire, a husband, and to be praying about that, but to make the worship of God and what he’s done for her—assuming she truly was a Believer—to make that almost unimportant compared to what it is that she wanted in her life. How can you think soundly about anything when you’re that far off?
Betty: It kind of reminds me of the Israelites. Think about, as you read through scripture, think about all the plagues that they saw in Egypt and what God was doing on their behalf supernaturally to rescue them out of being slaves in Egypt. And then God, parted the Red Sea as they came out and they walk through on dry ground. I mean, when you think, how would you ever get over that? How would you not think about that probably every day of your life? And then as they went on, God provided Manna in the wilderness for them to have food to eat, he brought water out of the rock so they could have water. He was with them in a visible way, with the cloud and with the pillar of fire. I mean we want to look back on that and think, “Well, we would have just worshipped God every day. We would have been thrilled for all that, he had done for us and all that. He had shown us of his great power on our behalf.”
Betty: But what did they do? They, I mean, they’re mainly known for grumbling and complaining for focusing. Even when they were hit an obstacle that they didn’t have food or they didn’t have water, instead of saying, “Look what God has already done. Surely he can take care of this,” they would be complaining that God didn’t provide. Even one time, remember they talked about, “Let’s get it. Let’s go back to Egypt.” It’s like, seriously. So yeah, and I think that’s kind of like their thinking was all messed up because they were focusing totally on the wrong thing. So their whole lives, generally speaking with Israelites in the wilderness, was a negative thing even after all that God had done for them.
Christi: Yeah. I’ve been focusing on Psalm 111 verse 1 that says, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.” I think that’s similar to a verse that you that you read that is—it’s not just that, I’m just saying words. I mean we can almost by habit say words, “I thank you,” “no, thank you,” “thank you, thank you,” whatever. But it should be not just words coming out of our mouth but really from our whole being, from the heart. Generally in scripture is the control center of the person. It represents the affections but also the mind and the thinking and the will. It’s the character, who we are, and our Thanksgiving should come from our whole heart, from all that we are. So that’s some of my think about sound mindedness connected with Thanksgiving.
Christi: And as women, I know, I could probably speak for everyone listening, we want to be sound minded. We don’t want to be tossed here and there and believing lies, and so yeah, such a good reminder that this can help us and keep us focused on truth because when we’re ungrateful, we do become irrational and it’s not true. We tell ourselves lies and then we believe the lies and that it just spirals down after that. Okay, so we know from scripture that thankfulness and worship they go hand-in-hand. Can you explain to us why thankfulness is such an integral part of our worship?
Betty: Yeah. I mean I think you’re just really goes to the heart of the Gospel. I mean, scripture says that apart from God we’re without hope in the world that we have no hope. Jesus said, what is it? John 14:6. “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me.” I mean we have been rescued from unimaginable, destructive, wrathful future by the death of Christ, and that we could that we could worship Our God and we could worship him. I mean, if we really think about that, how could we not be thankful, you know?
Betty: I mean we’re all Sinners and we’ve all come from different backgrounds and sometimes our focus is more on God’s forgiveness of what I said or did today or yesterday. Sometimes it’s maybe more on the past. But just thinking about what God is taken me from, either a very ordinary human life and has given me a future in eternity with him. I mean, I think about as a young believer, but in my late 20s for just a few years, but I really was not walking closely with the Lord and was not honoring him in relationships with some guys who were pursuing me. And when God kind of rescued me, from all of that and just gave me a whole new direction and what it would mean to walk more closely with him and to—it’s just it almost seems automatic that it comes with Thanksgiving and with gratitude.
Betty: And that doesn’t mean I’m filled with Thanksgiving every single day. I definitely have my issues at moments and challenges but I feel like I’ve been growing in recent years more and more with understanding how important that is and really desiring greatly that I would be a thankful person and seek to pursue that.
Betty: Another thing that I think is so crucial about how it ties with worship. Romans 1 lists all these different Sins Of Human Nature, if you don’t turn to God, going down down, down, down and verse 21 says, “and they did not even give, thanks.” It says for those and it actually says they became futile in their thinking. People who just turn away from God altogether are not thankful to God, obviously. So I lack of thankfulness to God is a characteristic of unbelievers and being thankful should be a characteristic of us as Believers.
Betty: There are so many verses in Scripture that call us to great Thanksgiving to God often and regularly and all the time and with our whole heart. There’s so much in Psalms and yeah and I just think the goodness of God is what propels us.
Christi: Like you just shared Betty, the gospel, meditating on that, putting our focus on what God has done and the great works He has done and on how good He is to us. And we were so undeserving of His grace and His mercy and yet He just lavishes goodness on us. And gratitude and this is by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in her book, Choosing Gratitude, which is excellent. Highly recommend that to the listeners. But she said, “Gratitude is not a quiet game, it begs to be expressed both to God and to others. Thankful thoughts need to be translated to thankful words.” And so as you’re meditating on those things about the Lord, and His care and His goodness and needs to come out and I just automatically think of singing.
Christi: And she goes on to say, “Music and Thanksgiving go hand-in-hand in the Bible. There is something about singing our thanks, not just talking it, that embeds gratitude even more deeply into our souls.” And the scriptures are full of that about singing with thankfulness, specifically the Psalms. I know worship is more than music and singing, but the scriptures make it clear that those two things do go hand-in-hand. Okay, so our next question here, why is thankfulness a result of faith and how is it related to our joy?
Betty: Well, I think it’s related to faith, just the real basis. Our gratitude to God is mainly for our, for our salvation, for our ongoing, sanctification, is for God himself for who he is, and that he would choose us to belong to him and that he gives the gift of faith that we might believe in him. So, that faith is how we receive salvation. It’s how we walk with him and become more Sanctified all the time as we live as Believers. And I think all of that is by faith, gratitude to God.
Betty: But in our joy, our joy comes from our worship of God and for trusting him and believing in him and it’s we often are Joy or happiness ties with circumstances or the lack of circumstances, but I think it’s really, it’s a joy that’s in God. It’s in our Salvation. That in any circumstances that we’re in, we can find joy. And it may it may bubble over at times, but there may be other times, it’s a quiet peaceful, kind of joy, that doesn’t bubble a whole lot, but just knowing God and resting in him and what he’s done for us and continues to do, there is a joy, however, it manifests itself in different people, but it is a joy, that’s all tied in with faith and also with Thanksgiving, I believe.
Betty: And we can be thankful and joyful even in the trials. If we really understand what scripture says that the trials God allows into our lives, he brings good out of that that he’s in the process of shaping and molding our character in growing us and using us in the lives of others. And that he, Romans 8:28, that he brings good out of everything that he allows into our lives. And it may not feel good at the time with some of the things that he allows, but he’s working it together for our good and we can find joy in that.
Christi: Yeah, there’s the only thing more debilitating to go through a trial, is to go through it with ungratefulness and God gives grace to the humble. So, if you humbly receive the trial, the hardship that he’s allowed into your life, he’s going to give you the grace to be thankful even in the midst of it and to have peace and joy. And if you resist that and you choose ingratitude, you’re not going to get the grace needed to go through that. You know, you have to humble yourselves before the Lord.
Christi: And there’s a quote here in the same book Choosing Gratitude where Nancy says, “But some of the Holy work we need to have done in us and through us can only come through the valley of Shadow and suffering. Are you going to be resistant to that, or are you going to be clay in his hands, knowing that he is intent on shaping you into the image of Christ and wants to use your life for something far bigger than your own comfort, convenience and pleasure?” We have to trust him, he’s doing something good, even if it feels painful and I just love looking at the life of Joni Eareckson Tada. I think about this woman who has every right to be ungrateful for her condition, being a quadriplegic, having battled cancer, multiple times, going through, chronic pain. And yet, she, I mean, just a joyful woman and look at what the Lord Has Done through her example, in her life of trusting in Him. And her life is not going to be that way forever, someday she will be reaping the rewards of storing up those treasure in heaven responding in a way that glorifies God. I just can’t even imagine the example she is to the spiritual realm too, of like you know kind of like a Job situation where God is just saying, no like this. You know, he will protect those who put their trust in him. And that segues nicely into our next question.
Christi: And what does it look like to be thankful in everything?
Betty: Yeah, that’s great. And and I would amend to what you said about, Joni. I have huge respect for her and great appreciation. Through the years, she’s been an amazing example for us. Well, what does it look like to be thankful and everything? That probably kind of goes back to what I was saying about joy. That sometimes we don’t, we’re not thankful for the circumstance, although I think if we really had the whole big picture that we won’t understand until eternity, we could maybe even be thankful for every circumstance, but we can be thankful in the circumstance because we trust God that he is using it for good. And that he is with us. And he has said, he will never forsake us. He provides strength, wisdom, and comfort for us even when we were in the midst of really difficult things. Oh yeah, that he will always bring good out of it for us.
Betty: I think about and I think that’s what does it, First Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” It’s hard sometimes for us to do that, but yeah, but God is at work. I think when I was with you the other time and I shared a little bit about the time, I had the opportunity to be on a trip in Romania, when the dictator was in power and Christians were living under great persecution there. And we were trying to travel as secretly as possible and not attract attention, but to be able to meet with six, small women’s groups in six different towns or cities, and it was just, it was such an eye-opening thing for me to see how difficult their lives were just constantly having to be very careful about.
Betty: We were in a building at one point where a couple of weeks earlier, somebody had thrown a bomb, or some little incendiary device through the window, didn’t blow up the building, but obviously did some damage and scared people. We never shared with the women we were with our real names that were on our passports. So that if the secret police arrested us and interrogated us, or did that with the Believers, they could never totally connect us and know that we had been there to teach Christian meetings and put those Believers in danger.
Betty: And you know, one time a pastor picked us up at the train station to drive us to his home. And one of the women across the street was out in her yard and they knew she was an Informer to the secret police. So he just drove right by his house and we drove around for about 5 minutes and came back. And she had gone inside. So he got out and opened his gate and drove into the back where we were going to be in his house. I mean, they just lived that way.
Betty: Some of their pastors were in prison and I think I read on the plane on the way over there. A couple of them had been beaten to death in prison. It was just such difficulty that they lived with all the time, but they were Believers and they, they wanted to be able to get together and they wanted to be able to be taught God’s word and to be with other believers in these women’s groups. And so it was so amazing to me that as the risk that they were taking that they would come and be a part of these meetings and they were so gracious. And any time we talked or they talked and they were speaking Romanian, they would make sure the translator was there to translate for the two of us so that we could understand what was being said.
Betty: And it was so interesting for those whole—I think we were in the country for 12 days. When we were in these Christian meetings, the only time they didn’t translate the Romanian language for us was when they prayed and we would stand in a circle and I think we held hands sometimes. They wouldn’t sit down because it was being disrespectful of God to sit down and pray. And so we would stand in a circle and they would pray and different ones kept going till maybe everybody in the group had prayed. So sometimes it becomes a long time and often the prayers got very emotional but they wouldn’t translate.
Betty: And so by the end of the, you know, 10 or 12 days, I kept hearing two words over and over again. They were obviously related to each other but I didn’t know what they meant. So finally I ask somebody, “I keep hearing these two words. I don’t think I’m totally butchering the pronunciation. See ‘asian’ but ‘multumesc’ and ‘multumim’. And I’m like, tell me what does that mean? What do those words mean?” And the person said, “Well, one means I thank you and the other means we thank you.” And I was so struck by hearing all those prayers for several days that those were the two words that stood out to me. For believers, my sisters in Christ who are living under the conditions of persecution that they were, they were so so thankful to God for, you know, for their salvation. And for him, most of all. They weren’t focused on external or trivial things, they were thankful for God’s protection for how he was providing for his salvation and they just became a.
Betty: And I mean, I came back home thinking about if I had brought some of those Romanian friends with me and they listen to my American friends, praying, what words would stand out to them that I would want to ask about and I was sad to think, I’m not sure. It would be thank you, you know, that they would hear the most. But we can all grow in that, you know, but that was a great example to me a very personal and impactful example of Believers in just real difficult, difficult, circumstances could be filled with Thanksgiving. It was an incredible blessing to be there and be with them time.
Christi: Wow, that must have been a powerful experience and just a testimony to the Holy Spirit’s work in a believer’s life because it is a fruit of the spirit to be filled with Thanksgiving, and that goes right into our next question. How do we pray with Thanksgiving? I mean, there are life is difficult. We have trials, we have petitions that we are bringing before the Lord. That we’re casting our burdens onto him. But how do we pray with Thanksgiving while also not ignoring the fact that we do have difficulties and things in our lives that are hard.
Betty: Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is just I think habit can be a good word or like spiritual disciplines. I really think it would be good for all of us to just make it, and when we pray, especially when we’re having, what how we refer to devotions or quiet time or just really seeking to spend time with the Lord to just really make it a practice that we always include a time of Thanksgiving. Yeah, that that should just be part of our prayers to pray with Thanksgiving and even maybe when we’re praying for things that we really want the Lord to provide or to do something in our life or somebody else’s life and we’re praying for that. But still thanking him that, you know, we’re Believers that we belong to him, thankful for the way he’s at work, thankful that he hears prayers and that he can answer and he may answer differently than what we’re praying at times, but that he is there and he cares.
Betty: And yeah and just so that we don’t become absorbed with put our petitions being the only part of our prayer life. You know, that we come to him, “Please do this. We want this, we want this. We need this,” but to begin with a time of worship to him and to and then a time of Thanksgiving and so that can be through reading Scripture and including scriptures as a part of your prayer time. I mean, there are some books out there that can guide us even in scriptures to use during those kinds of parts of our prayer time. So to me, I think that’s a simple answer and it’s not easy but to just really and to make sure that we’re including Thanksgiving and you even using scripture that can help us but always including Thanksgiving in our prayer time.
Christi: So what are just practical, if we want to put this into practice, we want to grow in our thankfulness, do you have just some strategies ideas for how to make this just a more permanent part of our day in our lives?
Betty: Well, I think the first thing I would say and this just be kind of changing a mindset but to just really be committed to not just taking things for granted. Yeah. It’s it’s like we want to say, “Oh yes, Lord, thank you for salvation. I’m real glad you provided that but here’s what I’m really focused on.” But to say, I really want to focus on what is the main thing, but I also but even in beyond and as we start with our worship of God and our praise to him and our Thanksgiving to him but thinking about the petitions and the other things that we do ask for and pray about to even sometimes even begin. Maybe by thanking the lord for already answered prayer that.
Betty: And also there was a quote that came out a few years ago. I don’t know that it was from Believers but if the quote was, “What if all we had today was what we thanked God for yesterday.” I guess it was believers talking about God here. “What if all we had today was what we thank God for yesterday.” I mean that just even that question becomes a point of conviction, right? It’s like, oh, I haven’t had so much yesterday that I want to keep hanging on to today, but I didn’t really think God for it. And I’m not saying that, you know, got to make a list of a thousand things and you got to repeat that every single day because that would get to be where your heart’s not really involved in that either. But to just to say, I’m not going to just be on autopilot here.
Betty: I mean, even today, I was thinking about just even in human relationships. Like, if you have a really close friend or a roommate or a spouse, think about, if you really love that person and you often do things to help them to support them to provide for them but they never say thank you. I mean, that would be really hard, right? I mean, probably most of us would stop doing some of those things. If person never says, thank you or maybe they say thank you, you know, once a month or something but you feel like you’re doing things all day every day or all week long and you just don’t receive gratitude and you’re not doing it to get the gratitude, but it just seems like, you know, that would be a natural part of it.
Betty: And I think about, you know, God is doing all kinds of things for us all the time. I mean, he’s mainly salvation or eternity, but he’s with us, he’s providing for us, he’s caring for us all the time, but sometimes we would pay more attention in a human relationship and say, genuinely, thank you more often than we put to our God, and he’s way more deserving of our thankfulness and our thank you to him. So I think trying to just change your mindset about just I don’t take it for granted that I have a relationship with God. That I’m I’m his and he’s going to be there. I’m really grateful for that every single day, so that would be one thing.
Betty: Another thing I think would be to memorize them verses on Thanksgiving. I would even recommend, there’s so much in the Psalms. I would even recommend, you know, reading through the Psalms and taking note of every time it talks about Thanksgiving and even as you were saying, like, with with joy, singing. There’s a lot in Psalms about singing with joy and with thankfulness and worship. Yeah, there’s a lot in Psalms.
Betty: I think some of the other verses that we’ve mentioned, First Thessalonians 5:18 talks about “Give thanks in all circumstances.” There are several verses in Colossians about Thanksgiving. 1:3: “We always, always always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray for you.” So it’s like even praying for somebody else but thanking God for them, or for how he’s worked in their lives. Colossians 2, 6 & 7: “Therefore as you have received Christ, Jesus, the Lord. So walk day by day by day. Walking him, happy, been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed. And what’s the last thing? Overflowing with gratitude.” Overflowing with gratitude.
Betty: Do we overflow? Would what our friends recognize that about us when I say that we’re characterized by thankfulness and gratitude? Colossians 3:14 to 17: “Beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect Bond of unity but the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing. One, another with Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts. That you would think singing with your voice, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” So obviously, it’s with your voice but it needs to come from your heart as well. I mean, do we ever sing in church and we sing the words but we’re thinking about something else? Right? I mean we’ve all done that. Yeah. But let our singing our praises to God, come from our heart. “Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving, thanks through him to God the father.” And then Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping Alert in it with an attitude of Thanksgiving.”
Betty: And I was reading in Hebrews is because in our women’s Bible study, that’s what we’re doing. And it was Hebrews 12. It’s a very end of that chapter after all this Doctrine about not turning away from Christ or high priest and the better sacrifice and the better Covenant and all that’s been done for us. And then the word therefore: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offered to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. For God is a consuming fire,” but the whole thing starts “therefore let us be grateful.” So again that’s the admonition. Is there in scripture regularly?
Christi: I really appreciate how you talked about being aware that the Lord is with you and hears you and offering those Thanksgivings regularly throughout your day in your heart or just prayer. And I’m just a mind-boggling thought that the God of the universe knows you, cares about you, knows the hairs on your head. I mean, loves you with an everlasting love, has died for you for your sins, to bring you into a relationship with him. I mean, yeah, just amazing truths to think about. How could our hearts not overflow at Thanksgiving, when we have this kind of God.
Betty: Right. Amen. And I think, you know, in the where your time, I love what you’re saying. When we talk about the very practical things for us to do just real simple things. One thing I thought about, I think I was part of a group one time where we were talking about thankfulness and somebody challenged us when you wake up in the morning before you get out of bed, thank God for five things. Tell him, five things, you’re thankful for before you put your feet on the floor. And I thought, okay, I mean that’s a good way to start your day, right?
Betty: I have a little friend plaque, a self-friend gave me a few years ago that says, “Start each day with gratitude.” I’m like, okay, that’s a, that’s a good reminder. Obviously, I think during our quiet time, our devotional time to, as I said before, to really include Thanksgiving. As part of that worship, time would be an important practical thing that we could do.
Betty: Sometimes I feel like when we pray before meals, it becomes is just habit. It’s just words that we say and I think we should if we’re doing that we should rethink that. I mean we’re praying, not just thanking God for our food, but for the fellowship or the person we’re meeting with, or maybe praying for them, but I think we need to be grateful for the food. God provides every day. I mean, that was part of the Lord’s Prayer. You know, “Give us this day, our daily bread.” And he proved—are people in the world who are struggling to have food to eat every day and even some Believers in different countries and I think it would be good for us to have an attitude of thankfulness to God, true thankfulness for the and we probably have more access in this country to healthy food than most anybody on the planet. We don’t always eat healthy but we have the access to it when some people don’t have that at all.
Betty: We have so much to be grateful. That was another thing about Romania. I did get to go in one or two grocery stores. I don’t think there was any fresh produce at all period. And when I came back and walked in the first market here and just looked at this huge array and pyramids of oranges and, you know, all the different colors in the produce and I just started crying. And I left the market and I’m like, okay, I have to shop another day. I can’t do this right now. I’ve just been with my brothers and sisters in Christ who are wonderful people in so thankful. And they don’t have have anything like this, you know, I wanted to pack it all up and ship it to them which obviously wasn’t anything that I could do.
Betty: So another thing, just that the only other thought I think I had particular about this. I think there probably a lot of practical things you could do, but I was thinking about setting some goals about this. But to even partner with friends, with other people. I find in getting feedback from my students at Masters. I mean they’re often having conversations with one another or they want to hold each accountable or talk about goals that they’ve said and really kind of ask each other how they’re doing. But I think we could partner with other people and and just ask our friends. You know, what do you think for for today? Yeah. What what has God done this week that you are just incredibly thankful to him? For how do you express your thanks giving to him for your salvation? That we could have more conversations with one another and I think that would stir us up too.
Betty: And probably additionally, read some good books. You’re quoting from some great books there and that would be wonderful read books in addition, first with God’s word. But in addition to God’s word read good solid Christian books about thankfulness and get challenge that way as well. I think it’d be great.
Christi: Really, really great tips there Betty. And so appreciate that, because we do know that thankfulness, that attitude is a work of the Holy Spirit. But we also have a responsibility to be diligent to pursue it. It’s not just something we’re completely passive in, we cooperate with the spirit. We put the disciplines in place to cultivate that attitude of thankfulness by what we put in our minds. We’re renewing our minds and that is a very important part of this growth.
Christi: So yeah, I loved all those passages that you read and think those are excellent to be memorizing and meditating on and just praying. If you really struggle, if you’re very ungrateful person, maybe a glass, half-empty type of person which I, I struggle in that, I’m kind of more of that way. And so I have to fight against that. And so, yeah, I would just encourage you if you’re in that place, ask for God’s help, fill your mind with truth. With scripture with the gospel. Another excellent book, The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent just small paperback book with really clear elements of the Gospel that you can be thinking about thanking the lord for.
Christi: And this whole process of Thanksgiving, it is so helpful because it takes our eyes off of ourselves. We all need help in that. We’re all tempted to be self-focused, self-centered absorbed with our problems. And we have to practice taking our eyes off of ourselves, and putting them on the Lord, in on what he’s done, and what he’s doing. So, this is going to be really helpful in that fight as well.
Christi: Such a joy, Betty, to sit down with you to hear how you do this. Just thank you for bringing God’s word in such a practical relevant, way into this discussion. And yeah, I’m convicted, I’m always convicted after every one of these discussions and want to live this out more. And with the Lord’s help, we will be able to and we have the victory in Christ to be able to put off ungratefulness and to put on a thankful heart.
Betty: Amen. I’m challenged too. It’s great to challenge each other.