Day: May 8, 2017

Brennan Manning: Gratitude is Inclusive

I’m doing  devotional by Brennan Manning and today’s really jumped out at me. I know this is something I really need to do.  There is so much I have gone through that I am not thankful for even though it has made me who I am today. I am just tired of bringing up the past.  I guess this is one of those things we have one wrestle through and just decide to do or not to do.  It’s another journey…another option.  AP

Good and Trouble

Gratitude is inclusive. At an AA meeting in Kinsale, Ireland, a man named Tony said, “If I had to choose among all the diseases that afflict human beings, I would choose mine [alcoholism], because I can do something about it.” At that meeting (as at each meeting) he introduced himself as “a grateful recovering alcoholic.” When asked why, he said, “Because without the Twelve Steps of this program I never would have found God.” Likewise, in the book of Job, that ruined man of God said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10) …

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections—that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to this present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

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