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Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His
mercy endures forever.
-1
Chronicles 16:34
I came out of the American Embassy, smiling from ear-to-ear.
I walked to the car park to tell my mum the news. “And?” She asked me. “I got
the Visa!” I shouted. “Well done sweetie!” She exclaimed with the biggest smile
on her face. She quickly introduced me to the lady she had been talking to
whose son was also trying to get a Visa, and then we walked excitedly to the
car. “Well done, my girl! But you won’t believe what happened…our phones got
stolen.” My smile quickly disappeared and tears started to fill my eyes.
Thinking about this now, I feel very embarrassed. I cannot
believe that I almost cried and that I was so upset at my mum for leaving the
car unlocked. I cannot believe how quickly my mood changed just because I had
lost a material possession. I was so upset that, the whole time we were driving
from the American Embassy to work (about a 25 minute drive with traffic), I
didn’t talk to my mum. She obviously wasn’t too pleased with my reaction and
looking back at it now, I’m not very pleased either. If I had had a grateful
mind-set, I wouldn’t have been so upset.
A grateful mind-set is exactly what it sounds like – always being
aware of how blessed you are and always being thankful for those blessings. When
you have a grateful mind-set you think about the blessings before you think
about the negatives or when you’re in a bad situation, you quickly switch to
thinking about how blessed you are. Having a grateful mind-set allows you to
dwell on what God has blessed you with no matter how bad your situation is. God
wants us to have a grateful-mindset.
Rejoice always, pray
continually, give
thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
-1
Thessalonians 5:18
I failed to realise that I was
blessed due to the fact that I didn’t have a grateful mind-set. I had just got
my Visa! Some people don’t even get their Visa. There I was dwelling on the
fact that I didn’t have a phone instead of rejoicing and giving thanks to the
Lord for His grace and favour! As cliché as the phrase “count your blessings”
is, it’s a great principle to live by because when you count your blessings,
you have no time to think about the negatives and I can assure you that your
blessings greatly outweigh your “negatives”.
I can look at the 20th
of June in two different ways: the day I got my Visa or the day my phone got
stolen. With a grateful mind-set, the former is the only way. God blesses you
every day and He has a whole bunch of blessings lined up for you. Instead of
thinking about how awful your day has been, think about how blessed you are to
have a roof above your head, shoes on your feet – in fact, you’re blessed to be
alive!
From the fullness of his
grace we have all received one blessing after another.
-John 1:16
Adopt a grateful mind-set and the
negatives won’t matter anymore because you will realise that you are blessed
abundantly.
God truly loves you.
With love,
Mandile
P.S. This is my last post from Zimbabwe for a while. The next
time you hear from me, I’ll be coming to you live from the first world! I’ll be
in the USA for university, but I promise to keep up my posting.
Shout-out: Joey Jewish. He’s an American rapper and singer.
Due to the fact that he’s Christian, he produces clean music but that doesn’t
make his music any less enjoyable. You can listen to his album “Beautiful
Solitude” on his SoundCloud and you can also check out his website,
joeyjewish.com.
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