Wonderful Reminder...

In my desire to post something meaningful today, I wasn't quite sure where to begin when I stumbled upon this wonderful article about gratitude. I hope it touches your heart as it has mine. As a mommy, I hope I remember this every day with my children. It's a little long but I hope you enjoy the link!

What Happened to Our Gratitude?
By Kerry Marsala

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:10, 11
As citizens living in a country, that in the course of human history has never flourished so greatly, are we as parents remembering to teach our children gratefulness towards the Almighty?

The outside forces that we constantly let consume us as adults are spilling over into our abilities to lead our children into remembering to whom we are indebted to. We are living in a drunken like stupor- our cities are flourishing as our houses grow larger. Our over sized houses are bursting with all kinds of extraneous goods. We are reaping the benefits of others hard back breaking work as we enjoy the liquid blessings and the fruits of their sacrifices. Then when all is said and done at the end of our day and we lay our heads down upon our pillows-, our eyes shut in self-congratulating fulfillment- and we forget our Lord.

How we rob the youth of reflective moments.

As parents, we will go to great lengths to make sure our children have the latest clothing fashions, attend the highest rated schools, and have their own spacious bedrooms. We then fill up their innocent hearts with stuff… just stuff. We over equip them with state of the art electronics, sign them up for every sport possible, drive for hours to educate them in the arts and go into debt taking them on extravagant vacations. What is it we are trying to teach our children? Are we too busy satisfying our empty frail shells with materialism that we really do not know what we are filling ourselves up with? Have we become so numb, due to our over abundance, that there is no remembrance from whence our prolific riches have come from?

Daily we are showing our children what is important to us and what matters most in our lives. Each time we push towards bigger and better- and then leave the gratitude lost somewhere back underneath the foundation of our homes, we are teaching that self is the god and there is no room for gratefulness towards anyone or anything.

We wonder as we read our daily newspapers or flip the news stations what has gone awry… why does our youth seem to be directionless and unfulfilled- but maybe what we should be asking ourselves as adults is this- due to our own lack of gratitude and thanksgiving to God- are we creating my own unhappiness and disillusionment which has led us to the continuation of emptiness and no gratitude? What hope of tomorrow are we teaching our children, for without recognition and thanksgiving- all we touch, see, taste and feel is void and without meaning. Objects are mere objects- and we then treat our loved ones much in the same fashion.

Without gratitude, life has no value. Want to change the world? Want to create a better life for yourself and the ones you love? Stop, be still, and remember with bowed heads and folded hands each day the giver of all gifts. Our God, our Creator, our Savior gave himself without asking for more than our gracious thanksgiving and obedience to His Divine will.

Our children are depending upon our leadership- when we rise, when we walk, when we take our fill, when we fall asleep- let our remembering become the catalyst for change and reflective measurement. It will create an atmosphere free from the false outer dependence of drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. Do not forget who has released us from the slavery of eternal death and destruction. Do not forget the Lord our God, call upon His name with a humbleness of gratefulness and thanksgiving individually and collectively as a family- life has been created to be a gift of abundant blessings and the hope of eternity.