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Lets talk ! The Power of Gratitude · Fostering Faith

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  Hello and welcome to Fostering Faith Today on episode 8 we'll be talking about gratitude.
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  And so we thought that this topic was great during our church's 21 days of prayer as it
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  puts you into a mindset really of what gratitude is.
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  And gratitude really just shows you just your love and how thankful for what God has done
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  for us.
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  And so we thought that this would be a great podcast topic and it can help a lot of people
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  how we are going to bring some practical tips into just bringing gratitude into your day.
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  Alright, so my first question for you is mom, what is gratitude to you?
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  Gratitude to me is just an expression of thankfulness is a spirit of thankfulness is just giving
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  thanks to God.
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  What's thankfulness?
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  What's gratitude to you?
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  Just thankfulness that whatever you got and feel like what you're thankful for and everything.
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  Okay.
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  I think gratitude depends on acknowledging who God is and what he's done.
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  It's an emotion not dependent upon another person or on nature or anything like that.
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  It is just life itself is such a gracious gift from God that once you realize that concept
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  of what all he's given, like your heart just is just overwhelmed with gratitude.
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  Okay, my second question is who shows the most gratitude in the Bible do you think?
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  Oh.
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  I would say probably that what's the one guy that asks for wisdom?
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  Who is that one guy?
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  Not Peter.
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  King Solomon?
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  Was he a king?
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  Was he a king?
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  Yeah, was he King Solomon? And several others his Dad King David
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  No, that was the bad king, right?
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  No, that's him.
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  I knew it.
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  I'm just like that.
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  What book did he write?
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  Psalms he wrote some of it
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  Mm-hmm.
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  I knew it. . 45 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:28,560 And then do you know of any Psalms that talk about Thanksgiving?
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  No, but it was a lot.
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  It was a lot.
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  And so just a couple of Psalms, you know, you have Psalm 56 and there's Psalm 100 and
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  it says, Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth worship in the Lord with gladness.
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  Come before him singing with joy, acknowledging that Lord is God.
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  He has made us and we are his.
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  We are his people, the shepherd of his pasture, the sheep of his pasture, enter his gates
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  with Thanksgiving and go into his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise
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  his name for God is good.
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  The unfailing love continues forever and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
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  I think that whenever we look at that, the three verbs in there is his shout, worship
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  and come before him, greet him from afar and we worship him and we come into where he's
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  at and the people of God are welcomed into his presence and you're just filled with
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  joy.
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  Our approach is joyful because of what he has done for us.
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  We know him by name.
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  He made us, he's redeemed us.
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  He is our shepherd.
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  We are his people and he just, he protects us.
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  As you look into verse four and five, it talks about the privilege of just increasing that
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  closeness as we enter his gates, we give him Thanksgiving and we praise his name and that
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  just brings a smile to my face just because we get to praise him.
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  We get to call him out and we just get to worship him and we just can review everything
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  that we've done.
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  We let our mind and heart just come out and there's no strings attached and it's just
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  free and just a wonderful experience.
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  All right.
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  My third question for you is why do you think God gave us so much stuff that we can be thankful
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  for?
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  Because he's a good God.
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  He's generous.
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  He loves us and with that abundant love, he wants us to have an amazing life and those
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  that are, you know, those that he trusts with little, he'll give much and what materialistic
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  things we don't count as, you know, stuff.
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  I mean, he's given us life.
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  He's given us breath.
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  Yeah.
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  What would be some practical ways that kids could start off their day before they're,
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  you know, getting ready to go to school?
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  What would be some practical tips for teens to start off with an attitude of gratitude?
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  Like what they like, or you can do at the end of the day, like what you're thankful
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  for that you did that day or what you got that day.
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  A gratitude journal is something that can be done on your phone, that can be done on
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  a piece of paper.
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  It would be, you know, cheap, free even since you already have a phone and just do it in
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  your notes section.
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  And I think sometimes in the season of life, you could have, you could write down the same
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  10 things every day because that's the only positive things that you have in your life.
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  And if you need to focus on those 10 things for a month, two months, six months, you just
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  keep focusing on those.
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  I, you know, I don't think it has to be something different every day.
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  I know that I do have patients do that in clinic.
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  And so if they're down, they're discouraged, they don't see the positive in anything.
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  We have them journal, you know, 10 things that they're grateful for.
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  And it could be a cup of coffee.
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  It could be a sheet.
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  It could be the floor because some people don't even have beds that just the fact that
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  they got to wake up, the fact that they are hearing, you know, just for our listeners,
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  this podcast, I mean, thankful for the internet, thankful for our phone.
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  Thank you that we can be able to reach, you know, millions of people across the globe
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  to, you know, to spread the word and just sight.
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  I mean, just little things, I mean, because those are so huge in someone else's life.
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  And I have a sign that's up in my office that says, I remembered the things that I have
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  now is what I prayed for before.
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  And just the little things that we take for granted of is just a treasure to somebody
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  else.
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  And just paying attention to details and, you know, being able to hear, being able to
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  see, being able to speak is such a gift that many don't even have.
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  It's a privilege.
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  And having that, that attitude of just thankfulness, it really just sets your tone for the day.
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  Because if you start off your day, what happens whenever you get up in a bad mood?
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  What happens?
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  Your day does not go good.
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  Like it doesn't go too good.
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  You just keep that bad thing going.
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  And so what, so if someone wakes up on, you know, Thursday and their mom is hollering
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  at them, get up, get up.
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  And, you know, that just sets the tone for the day.
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  What advice would you give to a parent to help their kids start off their day?
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  Have a kid set off a nice alarm.
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  Not the really loud ones, but like the ones that are more like peaceful.
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  And then my next question is for you is why is gratitude so important?
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  I think that gratitude is so important in just every, every aspect of life.
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  I mean, just, it's, I'm just so thankful.
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  And then once you don't have much and you have more than what you did, just you're so
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  thankful.
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  I mean, and you can even meet like people that are unsheltered, they have, you know,
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  they're even thankful.
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  They're thankful for, you know, all the things that they do have, what even the things that
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  have been taken from them, a lot of times we can even be thankful from the closed doors
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  that God has done.
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  We can be thankful in the difficult times and maintaining a grateful and gratitude heart
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  during trials and hardships.
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  You know, we read in James for class this week and he said, you know, give thanks in
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  all those trials because he's building our character.
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  He's building situations and our heart posture.
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  And so even in the midst of trials, you know, thanking him that he's walking us through
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  those trials, thinking him that, you know, he's never left us.
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  He's never forsaken us.
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  And I do think that just having, you know, us as a parents setting the tone for our kids
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  and we're just so thankful for our kiddos and, you know, there's so many, you know, parents
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  out there that want kids and can't have them.
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  And I'm just so thankful that I have the ability to have a daughter and that is just one thing
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  that I'm so, so thankful for.
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  And then middle of the night, whenever she's sick, whenever she has sporting events, whenever,
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  you know, I just feel super annoyed that I gotta go to do one more thing.
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  And then I do a heart check and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I'm so thankful that I have
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  that opportunity to be busy.
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  And so just looking for the positive, because there's always a positive for a negative.
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  And I do feel like that can really change your heart posture studies even show that
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  if you have a, you know, an attitude of gratitude, your depression, you know, drops significantly,
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  your anxiety drops, and you really can focus on it just time and time again.
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  People come in like I, I really didn't under I didn't know that this was going to change
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  my perspective that much.
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  Because when we're filled with that love and joy from him, we are just so full of, of just
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  thanks.
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  Okay.
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  So my last question is, what is your favorite thing to kind of like show off that you have
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  gratitude for?
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  Like an item?
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  I don't know.
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  What do you mean?
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  Like, say like someone just got this new thing like OMG, I just got this best like lotion.
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  It's so cool.
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  I'm so thankful for it.
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  Like what's your favorite thing that you have?
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  Like something that I can physically touch, I mean, you, your dad, I mean, the people that
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  he's allowed in my life, but only one.
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  I would have to say my Bible.
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  I mean, that physically something to grasp.
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  I'm so thankful that I get to read scripture every day.
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  It's his love letter to me.
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  He I could read the same passage 422 times and he shows me something different every,
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  every time that I read it and I get to meet him in, in, in here in my prayer room and we
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  get to talk every morning and he just gets to show me so many things.
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  And so bar none, my Bibles are my, I'm so thankful for them.
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  And that because I mean, they really have just changed my life.
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  And so what would be something that you could help the listeners be more grateful for?
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  Just a small things are really good to be thankful for because not a lot of people have
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  them.
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  And it's really good to just think of the little like say like, oh my gosh, like your
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  friend just said, oh, I'm just got some new shoes or whatever.
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  You're like, but I want those.
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  But then just think like, what do you have that like not a lot of people have like house,
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  water, food, friends and family.
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  Not a lot of people have a lot of those things.
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  Things that we take for granted.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, we're so fortunate in many areas of our life and what we have here in the United
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  States compared to what others have in different, in different parts of the world.
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  I think that we were very, we're very fortunate.
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  And I think that would be a great way to end the podcast is just just thinking about and
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  looking at all of what we have an access to here in the United States.
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  I think that we're so fortunate to live in America and just just have a God that we
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  serve that loves us so much that just fills us up with our love and our joy.
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  And so I think that maybe we should bow our heads and pray.
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  Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for today.
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  Thank you so much for yesterday.
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  Thank you for the ability to spread your word.
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  Thank you that we are going to be fishers of men and not watchers of the aquarium.
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  Thank you that you are changing our hearts.
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  Thank you that you were renewing our minds.
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  Thank you that you love us so much.
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  Thank you for the gratitude that we have in our hearts because of the love that you have
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  given us.
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  Thank you for our life.
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  Thank you for your grace.
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  Thank you for your mercy.
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  Thank you for everything that you've done for us.
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  Thank you that you are a God that is love.
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  you for everything that you do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. And so stay tuned
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  next week as we pray over our next topic and have a great week. Bye!