#GiveThanks

I have an old friend named Tom. We have known each other since high school. I haven’t seen him in years and the only time we talk now is on Facebook when I respond to his very thoughtful posts.

Anyway a couple of days ago he posted this quote from C.S. Lewis and it resonated with me. So much so that I wanted to put it here and keep it.

Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.– C.S. Lewis

I saw it almost immediately after he posted it and it really did hit me hard. I felt it. and here is what I wrote in response.

You know, throughout this whole year with all of the crazy stuff that is happening and continues to happen, I have tried, whenever somebody wants to be angry at the governor or yell about the politics, to remind them that in the end we just need to be the person that God wants us to be and screaming at each other and being angry at millions of people we don’t know and unfriending our friends because of a vote is not who God wants us to be. Sometimes it feels like we are sacrificing our eternal lives for politics. And I would prefer to love my family and love everyone I can than be angry everyday.

I am so sad that so many people are angry and so many people are walking away from family members over a vote. I have heard so many people say, “Well, I thought they were nice but then I found out they voted for…” Know what? they are still nice. But right now there is so much confusion people are having a hard time sifting through what’s true and what’s not.

I’m not judging people by who they voted for. I’m looking at how they treat others who they have contact with. How do they speak to another person. What are they doing to help their neighbors and friends right now. Do they need help? If yes, their politics won’t stop me from helping. And everyone needs help in some way regardless of what they tell you. All you have to do is spend a little time listening to them and little by little their concerns and worries come out and you can get a feeling for how you can help.

When you look at the life of Jesus Christ and how he helped so many people, often it was just by being there for them, by speaking to them in a way that made them feel valued and worthwhile. We talk a lot about the miracles he did but those were such a small part.

And here is one of the keys. Gratitude. Being grateful for everything you have and all of the opportunities around you and for your life and all of it. I have known this secret but I hadn’t been putting it into practice as much as I could have been in the most recent months and yesterday President Russell M. Nelson reminded us.

I hope you will join me over the next few days to give thanks in prayer and to let those around you and on social media know what you are grateful for. And use the hashtag #givethanks so I can look for you.

Today I am grateful for writing and the technology that connects us through this blog and through my social media accounts. The opportunity for the little conversations we have and my love of writing and how writing hear and in my journals helps me solidify and more fully understand things.

Photo by Ann on Unsplash

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