Good Morning, Digital Neighbors, and Blessed Sunday to one and all!
Sundays are for gratitude, and few things impact our lives more than intentional gratitude. It is not enough to say you are blessed or that you are fortunate; the actual naming of our blessings plants them deep in the heart, transforming us as persons rather than leaving us with the bland “thankful for everything.”
Two years ago, I wrote this reflection on resentment and gratitude. In light of the celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary, I think it’s worth revisiting. We can choose to be among those who are thankful for America or among those who find nothing but fault with it.
You cannot build a future based on resentments of the past. You cannot grow if you are mired in the injuries of yesterday. God and life do not call us to ignore such experiences, but He constantly calls us forward—to be more, to receive more, to live more. Heal those wounds and work through those injuries, but do not be defined by them, and do not try to build a future upon them.
You cannot build a future worth living if its foundation is resentment, envy, anger, and pride. Those poison seeds will bear no good fruit. They are the very sins that turned angels into demons, glory-sharers into life-haters. Injuries, trials, and failures are part of your story, but they are not part of your foundation. Your foundation is how you overcame them—not how you held them in an embittered heart and enslaved mind.
The more I live, the more I realize the giftedness of it all. The realization of life’s giftedness prompts gratitude in those who are whole and envy in those who are not. God’s conversation with Cain was an invitation to serve more freely and faithfully like Abel—and Cain, too, would have been blessed. Cain need not have been resentful, envious, or murderous. But the invitation fell on deaf ears. Envy had already hardened his heart.
The remedy for envy is kindness—simple acts of consideration for your neighbor. It is more than just “being nice,” which is what so many virtues have been reduced to in recent decades. Kindness is helpfulness directed toward someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper, but purely for the good of the person helped. I saw this sign years ago, and it still applies: Human kind. Be both.
Have a good day, Digital Neighbors!
“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” — Dr. Seuss
“Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
It’s up to you to decide what you are worth,
how you matter,
and how you make meaning in the world.
No one else has your gifts,
your set of talents, ideas, interests.
You are an original.
A masterpiece.”
— Regina Brett
“What you are is God’s gift to you; what you become is your gift to God.”
— Hans Urs von Balthasar
Glory to You for the feast-day of life.
Glory to You for the perfume of lilies and roses.
Glory to You for each different taste of berry and fruit.
Glory to You for the sparkling silver of early morning dew.
Glory to You for the joy of dawn’s awakening.
Glory to You for the new life each day brings.
— Gregory Petrov
