Tread in Grateful Waters
101 pages
English

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101 pages
English

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Description

This spirituality book challenges Christians to commit to at least forty-two days of devotion and complete a gratitude journal to witness a more serene closeness to God.

In today’s world there’s a lot to worry about such as the disruptions of the pandemic, social unrest, financial uncertainty, and more. But with much necessity, if we hear him, the Lord reminds us that, despite it all, we have so much to be grateful for.

The beginning of a series of devotions and teachings on the spiritual fruits of righteous living, author Dr. Tricia Thomas Anderson challenges us to concentrate on thanking God for the countless blessings, great and small, that he has bestowed and reduce the urge to focus on the negative.

Reflecting on her own experiences, she leads us through a forty-two-day devotional and journal experience to encourage observable change while witnessing and expressing thanksgiving for the grace God offers daily. Tread in Grateful Waters demonstrates how to put praise, honor, worship, and gratitude at the forefront before expressing our needs and desires when we talk with and reflect on the Lord while drawing us closer to him.


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Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 04 mai 2022
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781664261563
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

TREAD IN GRATEFUL WATERS
 
 
A Gratitude Devotional and Journal Experience
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tricia Thomas Anderson
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Tricia Thomas Anderson.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6157-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6158-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6156-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022905305
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date:  05/04/2022
Contents
Introduction
 
Gratitude Devotions
Epilogue
The Gratitude Challenge
Grateful Prompts
Light in the Darkness
Gratitude Journal
 
Endnotes
Introduction
February 1, 2021
At the date above, we were somewhere in the middle of a pandemic—the first since 1918’s Spanish flu and something many of us never imagined happening in our lifetime. So much was going on around us, within us, and in our homes. There was much to be concerned about and lots of uncertainty. But the Lord, with much necessity, reminded me that despite it all, we have so much to be grateful for.
About two weeks prior to the date above, with permission and through a health protocol to gain access, I went on campus to my office. I had to transport files to a new staff member and get more items I would need to continue working from home. I also wanted to safeguard some souvenirs in my office from possible destruction during a major renovation project underway in our office suite.
Before my departure, I grabbed my prayer box, which contained note sheets. I had taken the blank note sheets out and placed them on my desk years ago. Whenever I felt the need to pray for something or someone specifically while at work, I immediately stopped and wrote the prayer down that was on my heart. The notes would go into the box as my prayer request went to the Lord. One particular year, I began pulling those requests out to read and was pleasantly surprised that almost all the requests were about meeting someone else’s need. Before I left my office that day, I pulled out the first prayer note on top and the last written. However, this time, I was surprised to see my request showed a sign of distress. I pulled another, which seemed to be much earlier by the date on it, only to read what seemed like more distress. I didn’t like what I was reading because, not only were the notes evidence of some of the challenges I’d been experiencing and the length of time I’d been experiencing them, they read like near defeat.
When I got home, I continued to read more. Fortunately, as I read a few more with my daughter, Olivia, they got better. I begin to see prayers for others again. But that moment in my office made me realize that when I look back on times when I talked with Jesus, I do not want to read sadness, negativity, and defeat.
I also regularly journaled. After reading those prayers, I dared not go back to see what I’d said in my journal, where I had much more than a two-inch square of paper to write the thoughts and emotions down I’d been feeling at that time. On that day I decided that, moving forward, the words I wrote to the Lord in a journal, on a square of paper, wherever I wrote, would not be words of defeat, woe, and despair—no matter what I was going through.
Around the same time, I received an email from one of my secret mentors, Terri Savelle Foy. She’s a secret mentor because she doesn’t know she’s my mentor. Terri has been the greatest advocate on identifying mentors, whether you know them personally are not, that inspire you to reach your goals and dreams. Terri was talking about gratitude in the email and how she was keeping a gratitude journal for thirty days. At that moment I decided I would concentrate on writing down and thanking God for the countless blessings—great and small—he has given me for at least thirty days until the urge to write anything negative about what was going on around me was gone.
Thirty days went by pretty quickly. In fact, I went on to write for another month. Before I got to the end of month two, I was publicly sharing with others how grateful I was, despite the world disruptions of the pandemic, social unrest, financial uncertainty, and more. For Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, gratitude was my message and now came naturally. I could tell that a couple of people were taken aback and maybe thought I was delusional for a second, as they were having their own difficulties accepting gratitude in the midst of challenges. But I didn’t change my message. I shared examples of impactful things and even miraculous events that I was grateful for in 2020 and invited others to share their top five as well. After the initial shock, several began to share their gratitude lists, and that was the God-given influence I’d hoped to stimulate and encourage among others around me.
A few months later, I thought I might not have the opportunity to fulfill that assignment further. Circumstances and overwhelming obstacles whispered defeat in my ear. A walk on the beach at sunrise reminded me that God is the one who washes away pain and distress graciously every single day, just as the rushing of the rolling waters washed the sand and seaweed off my feet as I tread along the beach. No matter how we feel or what is going on, his love for us and our faith in him activates his grace. The shower of his grace washes away all that is hard and unlike him. That’s enough in itself if you can’t think of anything else to be grateful for.
I’m inviting you to reflect on and share what it’s like to be living in God’s grace daily, and if you feel like you have little to reflect on and be grateful for, I believe that you will be able to before you finish this devotional. This is my gratitude journal. Each day of this devotional is a deep, personal reflection from many moments of living in God’s grace and why I am so grateful to God for that grace, his mercy, presence, help, love, miracles, provision, and more. I hope it will remind you of the grace that we live in daily and encourage you to at least caress the surface, reflecting on many of the small things we really do greatly appreciate but often take for granted, like our ability to walk, hear, or speak. I hope it will also encourage you to open up beyond the surface and truly dig deeper into your heart and mind, reflecting on big things as well. Big things are those we may have expressed gratitude for in the past, but no matter how many times we say thank you, it wouldn’t seem like enough. Examples of big things are remission from cancer, recovery from a major car accident, sparing the life of a child, escaping poverty or abuse, and so on.
I would love to hear your grateful stories. Please feel free to share them. If you truly know from whence your help comes, then you too will be able to share with him how grateful you are. If you are inquisitive about or wanting to draw closer to God, gratitude is an ideal pl ace to start seeking and conversing with him. Gratitude can change your life. Sharing my reflections with you as a work unto God is how grateful I am in hopes that it will also alter words of distress and defeat for many of you into words of praise to him with gratitude.
Grateful—Day 1
I’m grateful for my life, health, and strength.

This is something we say frequently but often take for granted—our lives, our health, and our strength in the Lord. I’m fifty years old. I haven’t experienced a severe illness, nor am I physically impaired. Although I’ve experienced some of the to-be-expected life and body changes that come with being fifty, according to my doctor, who has been my primary care physician for over twenty years now, I’m in good health. She consistently tells me I need to exercise more and watch my diet now, but for the most part, I’m healthy. Thank you, God! And I am strong in mind, body, and soul.
While in general this was the reality, seven months ago I didn’t feel healthy at all. A part of our health that we often take for granted or seldom think about until there’s a problem is our hair; my hair was falling out and had been thinning for seven months before that. As in 1 Corinthians 11:15, I admired and believed that if a woman had long hair, it was her glory, and most of us take our hair seriously as a sign of our beauty, even if we choose not to have

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