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September 27 – Giving with Gratitude · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Good morning, everyone.
• 0:05
  It is September 27th, giving with gratitude.
• 0:09
  The Stone, a grateful heart naturally overflows in love, generosity and service to others.
• 0:15
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:18
  Today I will give freely without keeping score, whether I offer encouragement, time, or kindness.
• 0:23
  I will do it as an act of gratitude rather than obligation.
• 0:27
  The greatest gifts are those given with no expectation of return.
• 0:31
  Ripple 2 spiritual.
• 0:34
  As I follow Christ's example of selfless love.
• 0:37
  The Holy Spirit frees me from the need for recognition or reward.
• 0:41
  The Father's generosity towards me becomes the pattern for how I treat others.
• 0:46
  And I discover that the more I give in love, the richer my own spirit becomes.
• 0:50
  Good morning, everybody.
• 0:52
  I hope you're having a good day so far.
• 0:54
  I hope that you've hit your knees this morning, asked for direct thinking, maybe went and said some prayers for your family and your workers and your friends.
• 1:03
  And we're going to start today, though.
• 1:05
  We're going to start in James.
• 1:06
  We're going to start James 2, 22.
• 1:10
  James 2, verse 22.
• 1:13
  It says, you see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
• 1:19
  And, you know, when I'm when I'm thinking about gratitude, I'm thinking about what are my feet doing?
• 1:24
  Are my feet sitting still?
• 1:26
  Am I sitting in a chair and I'm am I?
• 1:29
  I mean, kind of like in Christ, and I'm not a Bible scholar, but the way I understand it, you know, he, at one point, he talks about the Pharisees and the Sajasees and the, and the, the, creators of the law.
• 1:42
  And he says, hey, man, they're all supposed to know all that stuff.
• 1:45
  you know, but you guys are different.
• 1:48
  You guys are going to have to do things.
• 1:51
  And to me, the way I, what I see that.
• 1:54
  Uh, weirdly enough, I'm going to start this kind of from the talking where gratitude is concerned about understanding what God's role for me would be.
• 2:04
  And that's why the, that's why the process of the steps is kind of important, especially to be taken through with somebody who kind of understands it, right?
• 2:13
  Because when we're talking about fear, um, which would probably be the back, you know, the negative side of gratitude, the absence of of happiness or or freedom or peace of mind.
• 2:26
  Um, You know, what we're looking for.
• 2:29
  is on page 68 in our big book.
• 2:33
  It says, we're in the world to play the role he assigns.
• 2:37
  Just to the extent that we do is he would as we think he would have us and humbly rely on him, does he enable us to match calamity with serenity?
• 2:46
  So for me, you know, I had to uh, do take these steps and find out what it, what role is it that he would have me be, you know, in the 1st role that he would have me be in the order in which I practice these principles is in my home.
• 3:03
  Am I useful in my home?
• 3:05
  And I try to be as useful as I possibly can to my wife.
• 3:09
  First and foremost, she's my the most important person in my life.
• 3:12
  I love my children.
• 3:14
  I love my mother.
• 3:15
  I love my friends and my family, but I'm a Christian, and I believe what my Bible teaches me is that I'm to love my wife 1st and foremost, that she's the most important person and the most important relationship that I have on this planet today.
• 3:29
  And out of that is the example that gets set for others to see, right?
• 3:36
  So, if my gratitude for understanding what role God would have me be as a result of this process of the 12 steps, my gratitude shows up in, well, I think that my wife would have me to, you know, do the dishes, and I believe that my wife would have me to clean up after myself, and my wife would have me to, you know, when she says, I don't like this on the salad, or I don't like that on the salad, or I would try to, you know, that, that, that, that, that, I would
• 4:07
  find that place where I am useful to her and express that gratitude that I have for our marriage, which is, again, one of the most important things.
• 4:19
  Well, the most important thing, uh, in my life next to my relationship with my creator.
• 4:25
  Um, you know, so that also puts us in that idea, right, is that if gratitude essentially, you know, kind of like uh, reflecting back on what James is saying, you see that his faith and his actions were working together, right?
• 4:37
  So how do I have faith in actions?
• 4:40
  Well, I get up in the morning and I say direct my thinking.
• 4:43
  I plan my day, direct my thinking, divorce me from self-pity and self- seeking motives, right? from my actions, right?
• 4:50
  And, um, on the 26th, we were talking about being restored to sanity and how being restored to sanity means the ability to think straight.
• 5:00
  Well, one of the promises of the 11th step is that when I ask for my thinking to be directed, that I can begin to rely on my thinking.
• 5:11
  I can begin to rely on the way, I think, and my actions that come from that should be from God for the most part.
• 5:19
  I mean, I'm a firm believer too, that God is everything.
• 5:23
  So, I mean, if I make a fool of myself in some way, shape or form, but I've got to go back to God to seek that forgiveness and to admit my wrongs and then to go out ahead and just like it says in the tent step.
• 5:35
  We ask God to remove them.
• 5:37
  That's the 1st thing we do, right?
• 5:39
  And if I'm practicing these principles and I'm practicing these, these concepts as a way of life.
• 5:45
  I'm setting that example, right?
• 5:48
  I'm setting that example that James is talking about here because he's talking about, you know, weirdly enough, he's talking about Abraham offering Isaac up for, uh, sacrifice.
• 6:01
  So he's talking about killing his own son because his because God asked him to, you know, and how great was his faith.
• 6:09
  You know?
• 6:11
  And and that that didn't come to fruition, but how how far are you willing to go?
• 6:15
  You know?
• 6:17
  And if God asks us to love our wives and to love our families and to love our job and the people at our job.
• 6:23
  Are you willing to go to that length, right?
• 6:25
  So it's talking really about action here.
• 6:27
  Like how, how, when you have established what, whatever role, right, that, uh, God would have you be, right?
• 6:38
  And it talks about that later down in that on page 68.
• 6:41
  It says,
• 6:44
  We ask him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what he would have us be at once we commence to outgrow fear.
• 6:51
  And, In that, what I would see it as the, when I outgrow fear, I grow into gratitude.
• 6:58
  And because I'm grateful for knowing who and what I really am and how I'm going to practice these principles in my life and in all my affairs.
• 7:09
  And I just really like that idea is like, it's so easy to say, well, you know, what does faith mean?
• 7:15
  Well, faith is an absolute action of things that you haven't seen yet, you know, and the absolute certainty that whatever comes will come the way it's supposed to every time.
• 7:26
  And I'm really grateful for that today.
• 7:29
  Uh, and my actions show that, you know, I wake up every morning and I do my, I do my uh, 11 step morning meditations and my morning prayers that my, my particular denomination of faith requires of me or, you know, you can certainly not do it if you want to, but you can certainly also not get the added benefits that come from it.
• 7:49
  And I think like, those added benefits are what makes me useful to other people, which is gratitude and action, right?
• 7:57
  Because if I'm grateful for something, I will act on it accordingly.
• 8:02
  You know, and so important to be useful out in this world today.
• 8:07
  It's kind of wild uh, to see the way the world is shaken up and uh, and, to actually go out there and being exam of the good that could be in this world, if we were able to, uh, you know, lack individuality, find common ground with one another.
• 8:24
  And uh, and we could lead that lead down that path to uh, living a grateful life.
• 8:31
  And I certainly am grateful to be able to spend time with each one of you this morning.
• 8:35
  And, uh, I know this one's, uh, you know, filling in for Corey and Pastor Mike is, is, is obviously a privilege and something I'm honored to do, and I'm very grateful to have shared this moment with you today.
• 8:50
  And, uh, Be prayerful.
• 8:53
  We'll end this with a prayer.
• 8:55
  Father God, fill my heart with genuine gratitude today, through your Holy Spirit, help me love and serve others freely and generously.
• 9:03
  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
• 9:05
  Amen.
• 9:06
  Have a great day.