DEAR GOD.... THANK YOU!

----------------------
DEAR GOD,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH..............

.....for everything of this earth living and non-living and for the universe
.....for family and friends, and people You have sent into our lives
.....for the gifts of talent and abilities
.....for Your protection, guidance, provision, comfort, and divine understanding
.....for blessing us so much more than we deserve
.....for always being there in our coming and going, in our falling and rising
.....for those things we can't see, hear, touch, nor understand and yet which You continually do for our sake
.....for Your loving mercy and forgiveness
.....for loving us unconditionally
.....for helping us in our life journey
.....for life
.....but most especially, thank you for YOU!

Teach us how to love you more. Teach us to use our lives to serve the greater number and the better good. By Your design!

GRATITUDE - THE KEY TO JOY

"A joyful life is an individual creation 

that cannot be copied from a recipe."  

--- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  Hungarian psychology professor)

That's a tongue-twister of a name but never mind because what he said about joy speaks with such beautiful clarity.

There's no one formula which works for everybody in experiencing joy. It's as diverse as the colors of the rainbow. Someone's joy may not be my idea of one ... or I may be looking at the same thing but not seeing what he may be seeing or am miles away from sharing the same thoughts. That too works the other way around as he may perhaps not understand my own sweet  joy over a simple thing as sitting on the floor with my dog Maxie on a nothing-to-do day.

Joy, as I have learned, is not as elusive as we most often mistakenly think it is. It does not have to depend on the external triggers or manifestations emitted by things events and people. Oh it may to some degree but it doesn't have to be that all the time.

We have to learn to find joy. We can create that experience. Joy, in fact, is already there in our day just waiting to be released.... discovered.... enjoyed and savored. It's put there by an All-Knowing God as a soothing balm to ease our muddled and bewildered lives.

BUT we must learn how to bring it out .... to breathe life into it. How?

It's simple. GRATITUDE, as I have learned through the years, is the key which unlocks the door or doors to joy.

Blessings, everyone. May your day and your weekend be filled to the rafters and out and beyond with boundless joy. Boundless joy, by God's design just for you.

(Thanks to Mr. Quote Man for the quote.)