A small town chamber of commerce invited a speaker to address its annual dinner. The community’s economy was bad, people were discouraged, and they wanted this motivational speaker to give them a boost.
During her presentation, the speaker took a large piece of white paper and made a small black dot at the center with a marking pen. Then she held the paper up before the group and asked them what they saw.
One person quickly replied, “I see a black dot.” “Okay, what else do you see?” Others joined in agreement: “A black dot.”
“Don’t you see anything besides the dot?” She asked. A resounding “No” came from the audience.
“What about the sheet of paper?” asked the speaker. “I am sure you have all seen it”, she said, “But you have chosen to overlook it.”
“In life, we also tend to overlook and take for granted many wonderful things that we have or happen around us and focus our attention and energy on small, dotlike failures and disappointments. The so called ‘problems’ that we have are usually like the black dot on the paper. They are small and insignificant if we can widen our horizon and look at the whole picture.”
Don’t be one of the person who focus attention and energy on dot-like problems. Focus on opportunities and good things. Focus on chances and good moments. Regardless of the several dots you may see around, there are hectares of sheets of papers around. There are wonderful things happening around that you can thank God for.
One of my year 2015 resolutions was to reach out to people to share and lift their souls through various initiatives and one of it was through the media.
I woke up one day with a great thought about the weekend, stuck in traffic along Thika Superhighway for about one hour and a half and throughout this time I was thinking of how I could be an inspiration to someone, even specific to some men who meet somewhere at Githurai 44 to play football and volleyball at chiefs area. Maybe to buy uniform and balls for them, probably to be motivating them and provide free first aid services everytime they have sports et cetera.
When I arrived at our offices, I met my boss Mr Davis Mogaka who had parked there and he called me, we had a general discussion and then he requested me to take him somewhere and without hesitation I went to the office, signed in and left not sure where we were going but were having a general man to man talk-developmental issues.
The guy told me that he had been invited for a TV interview in one of the local channels and that he wanted me to take him and so we drove all the way to the Hope worldwide TV Center, Kilimani. We were received warmly and the studio was ready waiting for us but to my surprise my boss told me that I would be the one to be interviewed and off he left- I was surprised. The program went on well and from the discussion we had and my presentation, the program director and the interviewer were so amazed, claimed of how inspired they were by the volunteer and compassion issues I shared. The words of gratitude and appreciation really inspired me and built my self-esteem. I felt very refreshed and ready to move mountains and scale heights. That became my first time to appear on a television program. My boss tricked me and left because he feared being infront of the camera but God was preparing me to be impacting lives through several media and so I had to learn how to behave infront of cameras and behave during TV interviews. On my way back, there was a minor accident along Kenyatta avenue and so I stopped to assist and when I was living, one gentleman followed me and said,” Thank you for what you have done to them, I wish I knew a bit of first aid.” As we were walking talking, I kept on thanking him too for volunteering to help the casualty even without any lifesaving skills and this really inspired him and he kept saying that he would like to study the skill. When we reached at Parliament road, we parted ways and he surprised me…..he gave me several hundred shilling notes and I assure you I had an urgent need that needed some finances which God used that guy to provide, Glory be to His name. Gratitude met my needs.
Learning to be thankful and regularly expressing gratitude is an important part of being happy. Being thankful gives us an appreciate for what we have. Even when you don’t feel like you have much to be thankful for, realize that there’s someone out there in this world of six billion people who would look at your life and trade places with you in a heartbeat.
When you thank and appreciate people for any achievement or act, you may never know what that would mean to them. It might take them miles and stir treasures in them that could impact the world. Practice gratitude always.
One time in my business I felt like we were going through a dry spell. The much we were able to get was just to pay the staff and few bills. I remember one Monday morning a gentleman came and ridiculed the shop. He asked,”Is this a Kiosk or stall, what do you have?” You can imagine the feeling. My staff felt disappointed and I could see one of them called MaryAnn was burning with an urge to give a rude response. Immediately I took charge and told the client we had the capacity to supply anything and any quantity. He asked for some items, looked at them with an ugly face and returned them and after about 45minutes of offensive questions, he bought a dust mask worth 10 Kenya Shillings and left. I looked at him with a smile, thanked him and welcomed him for another purchase next time. That weekend I helped a stranger in need of several thousand shillings, went for a three days prayer and fasting session at Heaven’s gate prayer center in Nakuru(my place of solace and communion with God where I visit dozens of time) specifically for thanking God with no any special prayer request, and the following Tuesday while traveling to Rongo for a Training, we got a more than one million deal and the client paid 80% in advance. This is the same client who frustrated us and bought a dust mask worth Ksh 10. He made me touch the first million in my business less than one week from when he frustrated us. What if we were rude to him? What if our response wasn’t friendly? I could not be sharing this testimony. I remember at the prayer center I thanked God for making me a millionaire and few days later I had slightly above a million in a day, within hours.
There is always a lot around to be thankful for; appreciating that PSV driver for driving you carefully, thanking your child’s teacher for the impact on your child, thanking God for rain, sunshine, a new day, arriving home safely…practice Gratitude.
Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. And if per chance you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself.
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.
Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be human…At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
When you go through difficulty in life, one of the ways to keep the right perspective is to take a moment to look back over your life and remember what God has done for you. Remember how He made a way when you didn’t see a way. Remember how He opened doors that should have never opened. Remember how He put you in just the right place at the right time, promoted you, healed you and restored you. If He did it for you once, He can do it for you again. When you read what He did for the people in the Bible, you can have confidence that He will do the same for you.
This is how you build your house on the rock. Hold on to the promise that no matter what comes your way, when the storm is over, when the trouble has passed, you’ll still be standing. As a believer in Jesus, you have the DNA of Almighty God. The same power that raised Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you. You may get knocked down, but you’re not going to stay down. You’ll rise up and stand strong when you build your life on the Rock. The same God who Has conquered for you today will do it tomorrow. Be thankful. Our God sees the end from the beginning. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is Ebenezar and so we should be grateful for what He Has done, is doing and is about to do. Embrace gratitude.
What you dwell on is what you will draw into your life. We can either focus on our problems, or we can focus on our blessings. The question is: do you want more problems, or do you want more blessings?
One thing I’ve noticed is that when you live with an attitude of constant gratitude, not only do you thank God for what He’s done in your life, you start thanking Him for what He will do in your life. You thank Him for opening doors for you in the future. You thank Him for increasing you. You thank Him for bringing the right people into your life. When we say “Thank You” to God for the things that are coming, it’s really a declaration of our faith in Him. It’s like saying in essence, “God, I’m so sure of Your goodness, I’m so sure that You’re working in my life that I’m going to thank You right now for what You are going to do tomorrow!”
Every day when I wake up, most of the times I don’t present a list of needs and requests to God. I thank God for what He Has done, is doing and is about to do. The faith that He is about to do something gives me an excitement for the day.
Friend, that’s the kind of faith that pleases God. He wants us to trust in His goodness and believe that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He delights in seeing our faith. He delights in an attitude of gratitude.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that God promises to always lead us into victory? That means no matter what is going on in your life today, no matter what’s happening in the world around you, no matter what anybody says, you should always be thanking God because victory is always on the way.
You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to celebrate what God is going to do in your life. Praise is putting action behind your faith. In the middle of adversity or a tough time, start making a list of who you’re going to invite to your victory celebration. That means if you’re in the hospital, start planning what you’re going to do when you get out. If you lost some money when the economy went down, start planning your coming-out-of-debt party, if your fiancee has rejected you, just start planning for your colorful wedding, if you have lacked school fees start preparing for your graduation ceremony. When things don’t look good in the natural, remember, we serve a supernatural God. With God leading you into victory, you can always plan for increase. You can plan for restoration. You can plan for a comeback, and you can plan for victory because He is leading and guiding.
In the next chapters I’ll share some testimonies and real life experiences that will touch your heart. I will give more details about how I went back to school with no school fees after for years in the streets. The last day after completing my KCSE exam, I felt an urge to go thank the management of Anestar school for allowing me to thrive through the three years despite the financial challenges I had. When I went to Mrs Gatimu’s office and told her that I came to thank her for having allowed me to study through, she wept. She was deeply touched by the fact that I recognized their compassion and she cleared the huge school fees balance that I had. Behind The Scenes Note, I did not go to request for a waiver but thank her but this activated a miracle. I cleared dept free to God be the glory. Be thankful my friend. Gratitude unlocks providence.
I have suffered hurts, rejections, betrayal, harassment and other negative experience in life, being heartbroken by the person I loved most and so on, but note, Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. From the experience, am a better person, a better lover and knows how to treat even difficult friends with dignity. I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss and have learnt necessary lessons and experiences along the way from the loss. That means when you break up from your relationship, learn to accept, adjust and advance with gratitude because God is working behind the scene for something better for you.
It is necessary, then, to 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.
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.
I want to give you a secret. When trouble comes, the devil expects us to get worried, complain, mourn, lose hope and give up but when you praise God, be thankful and worship the Lord through it and this will confuse the devil. In the scriptures, Job complained a bit and when he knew the secret, he thanked God and said, ’I have been hearing about Him but now I have seen Him.’ He even prayed for his friends when they visited him and it is at this moment that there was a turn around in his life. If you want to confuse the devil, praise and worship God in the midst of your tribulation.
There will always be something to sour our day; people, interruptions, disappointments, we can’t find the house keys, gas ends while cooking ugali, somebody is rude to us, experience a tyre puncture along the way, or what should have taken an hour, ended up taking three hours. If we’re going to live in victory each day, we have to have the right approach to life. Learn to praise the lord in such times knowing that He is in control because behind the scene He is working out things on our favor.
We all face difficult seasons in life. How you respond in the difficult times will determine whether or not you make it into the fullness of your destiny. Praising and thanking God is such times are the tools to stay in faith during seasons of loss, disappointment and unfair situations. By staying in faith and speaking out in faith over those difficult times, you will stay in a position of power and peace. Discover how men and women in the Bible faced trials just like you, and their faith in God brought them to their promise land. As you have the attitude of all is well, you are showing God that you trust Him. That’s what allows Him to give you beauty for ashes and take what was meant for harm and use it to your advantage.
Our God dwells in the midst of Hallelujah not complaints. He is your provider, your guide and your shepherd.
Sometimes the best strategy is shut up and praise God through the valley. He is pleased and takes charge of the situation.
Be grateful, be happy, appreciate what God has brought at your disposal and know that nothing surprises God. In everything that you go through there is a divine purpose so rejoice and be glad.
