“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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This is not always easy to remember – to cultivate the habit of being grateful. We are quick to seek God’s help when we most need it but tend to just as quickly forget him when things are going great for us.
We make decisions every day in our lives but there are some days when we feel like we have to make all the big decisions all at once. In my case, my mind is on several things – home, family, job, friends, church, and the list goes on. Have you ever felt yourself in sort of a stupor, where things require your attention, and you feel like you are giving it your all but there seems to be no movement, whatsoever? It is in those moments when I wish I instantly remembered the words of C.S. Lewis: “God is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it, so quietly submit to be painted.”
If only it were that easy. Yet, it can be if we work at it one step at a time. As humans, we tend to exert control over our lives, believing, foolishly, of course, that one does indeed have the power to do that. We are able to accomplish quite a lot with the notion that we control our lives, but what we fail to understand, time and again, is that when we willingly submit our will to that of God, the things that we are able to accomplish are much more than we could have dreamed of doing on our own.
When we are willing to be the least, he will make us the greatest. When we are willing to be his servants, and love him unconditionally, he is ready to take us to new heights. This is so hard for me to do and even harder for me to remember. I work hard and do all that is in my human power to achieve what I want but only when I slow down and realize that I have to submit to God’s will and his timing, do I begin to see how much he loves me and how much more he has planned for me that I could never have imagined.
So, every day, I am going to learn how to submit to the will of God and cultivate a habit of being grateful in all things. I know this will take a lifetime but why wait?
