". . .always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20).
The first step to getting a life is to thank God for the one you already have. None of us asked to be born but here we are. We have been handed the gift of life. What will we do with it? Life is a great adventure. Each of us is born into different circumstances. We each have different capabilities. All of this diversity is a means to a rich and colorful culture if we acknowledge the One who gave us life, thanking Him by living lives of love, faith, joy and responsibility.
One of the hallmarks of a healthy life is gratitude, and one of the common characteristics of a troubled and unhealthy life is complaining and grumbling. On "Steele's Depression Inventory*," the lack of gratitude is given a significant value. On God's Judgement Inventory, complaining and grumbling have significant value too, being characteristics of wickedness (See Jude 15-16.).
Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult circumstances--painful circumstances. Complaining about them isn't going to solve them. Rather, acknowledging that our difficult circumstance might be just the spur we need to move us to making the changes we need to make. When our pain spurs us to take initiative we are taking the first step to getting a life. Therefore, we can be thankful.
Grace&Peace,
Tom
*In a future article I will publish "Steele's Depression Inventory."
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