#2: "In Everything Give Thanks!” - Lesson Learned /Heart-ache Lessened

I somehow remember my mother saying that the one thing she can’t stand is an ungrateful person.  Yes, she would mainly say this when me or my sister seemed to be ungrateful for something she did.  But that has sucks with me and has been a lesson that I have learned.  I wish I was better at it. I try to send thank you cards to people who have given me something or have done something meaningful for me, but too often I do forget to truly say thank you.

Thank you goes a long way! Another thing my mother says.  I think about the many doors that have opened simply because I was taught by my mother to treat all those in low and high places with dignity and respect. Yeah sometimes I fall short at that, but I try my best and well I know I need to try harder to express my gratitude. So to each of you I say Thank You!

God uses people, ordinary people to be extraordinary blessings. I am grateful that God placed many of those people in my life at some point. If I began to name names I would leave off quite a few. But if I had to list them I could not forget… my mother and my sisters, adopted grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. There were elementary school teachers, High school administrators, NAACP advisors, mentors,  College Presidents/administrators, scholarship program leaders, professors, church members, pastors, custodians, security officers,  lunch ladies, office assistants, supervisors, coworkers, classmates, seminary friends,  adopted aunts and uncles and big brothers! Within these broad scopes lie many who have been ordinary people, who have been extraordinary blessings in my life at one time or another. At this present time, I must name one person. Shout out to my friend and co-worker, Arrion, who has made living in Iowa a lot easier & fun, and well I glad she is here.  Yall don’t know until you tried living as a black man in a white town with a whole bunch of white folks.  I’ll leave it at that!

Yes, I have learned the lesson of gratitude. So I say thank you to all those who have in some way touched my life and made me the person I am today. I even say thanks to those who believed I would not succeed. I am grateful to you, not simply because I can say “look at me now”, but because at some point I was able to utilize your pessimism to propel me forward as I said, “I know I can, I know I can, I know I Can!”

Finally, I give thanks to God because I realize that the blessings of my life are way beyond my human ability.  The blessings of friends, whom I may not speak to in months but relationships carry on as if we just talked yesterday.  The blessing of my family (immediate and extended) who love me unconditionally.  The blessing of a job with great benefits. The blessing of a SUV that I drive and the ability to make the monthly payments and the insurance premium. I am blessed to have two sisters, MaSherra and MaShica, and a mom, Sherry, and I can’t forget about my nephew and brother-in-law, Jedidiah and Dontae, whom all I adore and give thanks to Almighty God for making me part of such a talented beautiful family.

As the song writer says:

"I could go, on and on and on, about Your works,

Because I'm grateful, grateful, so grateful just to praise You Lord, 

Flowing from my heart, Are the issues of my heart,  Is Gratefulness!”

Lesson Learned, Heart-ache Lessened,

RevMAH