ClydeStyle

Tag: Gratitude

  • The sadness of Veterans Day still looms

    Every year at this time, I get sad. I’m sad because I know that there are millions of veterans without benefits. We spend so much of our national budget on weapons of mass destruction and maintaining a strong military, but we’re not making good on our promises to the men and women who risked their lives.

    Neither political party has addressed this. You can see homeless vets, vets on drugs, and more struggling with debt from medical complications.

    Meanwhile, our government, still trying to fight the good fight, is helping other countries  like Isreal and Ukraine while our folks struggle.

    It seems that in the 21 century, we would err on the side of people and rather have a scenario where our veterans are overpaid than under.

    This problem seems so easy to handle, but because our veterans are not useful to our cause anymore, we have thrown them away.

    What’s worse is that there is a divide among the veterans between the ones receiving benefits and the ones who don’t. How can they be a band of brothers on the battlefield, but once we get back home, it’s every man for himself?

    I don’t celebrate Veterans Day because of this. I wish the nation wouldn’t be celebrated either until we have corrected this atrocity!

  • The reason for this season

    Christmas time is here! We are right in the midst of the holiday season and most things are quite festive and beautiful!

    I love Christmas! I loved it as a child, I loved it while raising my own children and now I still enjoy it with my granddaughter! My family does it pretty big! As part of our tradition we can’t help but think about why our lifestyle is possible.

    Despite the ills of America we are enjoying a wonderful life, guilt-free because of the blood of Christ! All of our blessings come directly from him!

    Like the Ark, the bible tells of the story of Noah and his family’s obedience to the will of God in building an ark for the saving of souls. The time of building gave him the opportunity to preach a warning message to the people to surrender their sinful ways and serve God.

    Noah preached about 100 years while the ark was being prepared but only 8 souls were saved. The point is God made a way for those souls to be saved by being in the safe zone of that ark. As long as they were in the ark nothing could harm them.

    Being in Christ works the same way today! Those of us in Christ will be the recipients of his propitiation — meaning to avert the wrath of God by the offering of a gift! Jesus was that perfect gift/ark and those who have entered the ark or been baptized into his death (smae thing) we have made it to the safe zone and will be saved at judgment day.

    Jesus is our ark. He is our safe place and if the nation wants to recognize him coming during this time of the year, I’m all for it! Merry Christmas everybody!!

  • Celebrate the women you love!

    I don’t believe women are celebrated enough!

    I mean an argument could be made for celebrating anyone but from a male perspective, our female partners have a lot to put up with in life. They are still looked at as second-class citizens in regards to wages in America. They can’t seem to turn off their nurturing abilities meaning that in today’s society they do a lot more of nurturing grown men than kids.

    Women make things beautiful, they are long-suffering, forgiving (most of the time) and extremely helpful. Most of them are resilient, patient, compassionate and strong.

    When a woman is happy she can effect an entire building with her happiness. Her wrath works the same way. Women are fighters, like their animal counterparts they will defend their children with their very lives.

    I wonder how many women are the sole support of their families? During the absence of men, women have had to be everything to everybody and they hardly complain. Whenever a women is not able to do this it’s because someone somewhere ruined her. They clipped her wings or took something so precious from her that spoiled her will to thrive.

    A woman is similar to water as she is strong enough when she needs to be, comforting enough when the situation calls for it and can adapt to any situation you put her in.

    This holiday season we need to go all out for the women that make the trials of life much easier to bear. What would we do without them?

  • Gratitude vs. Thanks

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    I was unaware of the symbol for gratitude. Of course, Eastern culture exhibits the symbol as much a we see stop signs here.

    Gratefulness and thankfulness each have its purpose, but have you ever viewed these words as levels of maturity? What I mean is a child will mimic what you say to him, but there will be no emotion behind it and that’s because there is not much intellect behind it. Imitation is what children do and it seems that some people never grow past mimicking.

    We are taught by our parents to say thank you when someone does something for us. We say thank you as a sign of respect. We do it because it’s the “right” thing to do.

    We grow up and understand thankfulness in the context that we learned it as a child. Thankful means to be glad or relieved that someone did something for us. That is a great thing to understand — when you are a kid.

    Gratitude seems to be the next level because it means that you understand what has been done for you and you want to express an inward feeling outwardly. You want to do something because you are moved by what someone else has done for you.

    Wow! That is different!

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    So ultimately our faith must do better than rest at thankfulness because faith without works is dead. So if we understand what God has done for us, then our actions should speak for us.

    So if I am grateful for God’s unconditional love then I will give it to someone else. If I am grateful that God has forgiven me, then there is no way I don’t forgive. If I am grateful that God’s grace saves me from a state where I could not save myself, then why would I not be so grateful as to learn of him and shout from the roof top telling others about him?

    Thankful appreciates. Grateful expresses the appreciation. Thankful shines with a smile. Grateful is a call to action.

    Therefore, I need to be grateful instead of thankful. I need to be more of a doer and not just a hearer that my faith and trust in God may be displayed before the world.

    I give God my thanks regularly, but I need to let him and everyone else know that I am grateful.