GLADitude!

 Sunday, March 9, 2025 (2:07 p.m.)

Northeast to Ensenada, MX

Daddy God ~

How grateful am I? Let me count the ways! Beauty. Peace. Adventure. Contentment. Delight. Enrichment…

Your Word seeps into my being. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 from yesterday. The Heart of Paul Volume 1. “Be grateful in each experience of life because God in Christ wants you to have a positive attitude toward life.” To this I say, “Amen, Dear Lord. Amen!”

I was aware much earlier of thinking the words, “Be grateful ~ not hateful.” Yes! Lord. Teach us to be Your grateful people. Is it ever really that hard to choose gratitude over attitude? Could we just come together, making a new word of GLADitude?!

Yes. Please! I want to continue growing into the woman You would have me be. Loving. Kind. Grateful. Joyful. GLAD!

As I consider Your love for us I turn to Ben Campbell Johnson’s Relational Paraphrase of what is known as the apostle Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth describing what love is and what it is not. He [Paul] begins by boldly stating, “Love stays in difficult relationships WITH KINDNESS (emphasis is mine!).

That one line carries weight we would all do well to exhibit. Stay… with kindness!

Going further we find, “Love doesn’t play ‘one-up-man-ship’ nor does it react to those who do.” It’s not rude or grasping or overly sensitive nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love celebrates what is real. Not what is perverse or incomplete.

Father, I am asking (Matthew 7:7a) that I learn to love as Paul described.