It's nice to hit the ground running sometimes. No sooner have I posted on "the generous heart", than the HTB Blog (Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, London, UK) posts this useful piece. "Thanksgiving is a lens through which to view our entire lives." Absolutely!
I especially like the emphasis on 'the sacrifice of praise', interpreted as a public act of thankgiving in the context of worship. King David in the book of Psalms often makes mention of this - and that it was a positive delight to offer such gratitude.
The post also gives a sober reminder from the New Testament: Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him (Romans 1:18–21).
John Schmidt, meanwhile, offers these thoughts on the grateful heart, linking it with material generosity.
Under the catchy title "The Attitude of Gratitude", Christianblog.com looks at the natural selfishness of human nature and urges a discipline of thanksgiving as the antidote.
"The attitude of gratitude takes a conscious effort to master. Bombarded by negatives every day and surrounded by selfish people who are only looking out for themselves makes it extremely difficult to stay thankful. But, if the effort is made to always remain thankful no matter what the circumstances; the reward will be one of peace in the midst of the storm, joy in the midst of despair and a willingness to share of all one has."
Here, David Burchett considers the correct response when our act of generosity towards someone (in this case, a turtle, by the way!) is not received as rapturously as we would secretly like and expect.
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