Thank-You Day! A Discussion on Gratitude

Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song good afternoon, Good afternoon, Good afternoon. Welcome to Talking Point. It is a wonderful Sabbath day, and I hope you're all having a good sabbath. From what I can see, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and it's the first of July. We are officially halfway through the year, so welcome to Talking Point. We've got a wonderful show ahead of us today and with me, I'm in Shuja today at the desk by myself, well not quite by myself, actually,

my favorite person, Josephine, is hanging out with us today. And then on zoom we've got Zenya. How are you doing, Zenya? I am very well. Good afternoon everyone, Happy Sabbath, and welcome to Talking Point. Yes, and hopefully Pedro will be joining us at some point later on. It's got another engagement, so it'll be myself and Sonia having a conversation. So to get us started, we'll say a word of prayer and then we are going to Yeah, I've got an interesting topic that we can

talk about today, So yes, let's pray. Father God. I want to thank you for blessing us with a wonderful Sabbath day, Dear Lord. The beauty of Sabbath is that we can take time out to rest, hopefully and to focus our minds and hearts on you, dear Lord. Today we're going to be saying thank you for the many things that you do, but also people around us as well. I thank you for blessing our listeners. I pray that they will be blessed by the program and it'll set them up

for a good week. This is my prayer. Amen. The clue was in my part of my prayer there. I started up by saying thank you because I was going to be our topic for today. We're gonna be talking about saying thank you and the idea of gratitude and what that means for us. Yeah, soor of an interesting one really, And there's a reason why we are talking about thank you saying thank you as well, So I'll share the a second. But Zenya, how are we and how is your week

being? Oh gosh, it's always a bit of a blurer, I think, Oh yeah, I remember the last time I said that. I got such a grilling. It's such a blur. Why is it? What's been happening to make the blur it to be so blurry, very pot just so much. I mean you said it at the top. It's already mid year, and I feel like it was just yesterday that we were ringing in twenty twenty three. It just seems to be flying by the days, the weeks, the months even. But of course I've got to shout out to Josephine,

I've got to shout out past the ray. He's celebrating his birthday even now, yes, and that we had an amazing time with him and the brethren last night as we just gave God thanks, sort of in tune with our program today, just giving God thanks for his life and his ministry. So that was really for me the highlight of the week. Also doing a bit of mortgage shopping and property shopping as of things going on. So it's really been busy as well as work and the usual. So yeah, he's

giving God thanks for life and for he's keeping mercies. Really yeah, because it can be exhausting and overwhelming, but God, you know, yeah, yeah, no, definitely, and I definitely hear you on the exhaustedness because now I've come to the end of the weekend. Week's been really busy and actually quite stressful. Actually I have the role of a career. It does take its toll, as it were, kind of being on all the time, and you know, never know quite what's going to happen from day to

day whilst trying to maintain a full time job and doing everything else. I do sometimes wonder how people do it, and I know, I'm very thankful for those people who do support. My mum goes to a well being center during the week and I am so thankful for those those ladies that work there. They are such lovely people and it really made me think, you know, in terms of the service that they offer, the way they treat people, the way they are kind. And I thought, I actually thought,

and I don't know, maybe I'll do this. I don't know, but you know, the idea of fundraising, and I was thinking, oh, you know, that definitely would be a charity that I would support, you know, to raise money for them. I think maybe I'll do some kind of sponsored run or walk, what have you. Well, you know, I thought about that. Then I thought, oh, maybe it could be more, it could be more dramatic. Maybe I'll do add in a parachute

jump or something. Like that, but yeah, I might have to rethink some of that supporting you from the side, so I shall be cheering you on. Yeah, so I mean, you know, we'll see. But I was, you know, I was thinking, you know, just how one to be kind they are and just so lovely and just yeah, being a real godsend. I would say, um, you know so, but yeah, but again, thankful for the week and getting to the end of the week, thankful for the Sabbath. I was down at Ballam today they

had their prayer day and it was also thirteen Sabbath actually as well. But really loved to see the children. Even though I'm not always there every week. My kindergarten class has grown, so they were reciting them mem reverses and even performed a couple of songs, and one of which was an original written by Gabballa, who is three, you know, And it's just like wow, and they're there with their instruments and everything, and I was just like,

oh, this is what we'd like to see. You know, we talk about train up a child and the way they will go, and you know, these things hopefully are going to have an impact. I'm really real believer in kind of creative worship and you know, using play in different things with its arts, crafts, music, you know, to bring the word alive. And you know, I'm grateful for I'm really thankful for the parents that play a huge part in that. But that was really lovely to see.

So you know, they're despite the kind of challenges of the week, there are definite highlights which we're talking about. And again I echo what you're saying about, you know, celebrating Pastor Ray. Um, it seems so weird him not being on the show these days actually listening. Yeah, I think he was preaching and reading I think today, but you come back, come back and be a guest on our show. Um, you know,

but again, really thankful. I'm thankful for you know, the impact has had on us as well, you know, giving I'm saying, given me the opportunity to come on the radio, I mean part of the show. Um, you know, definitely learned a lot and you know, whilst you hear the banter and you know, there's all love there and everything else. So definitely grateful and secretly we know he misses us somewhere exactly, so you

know, I'm seeing the face right now if it was an emoji. We know which one it would be, but yes, so yeah, yeah, that's so. That's been the week. And I hope you know, to our listeners out there, I hope your week has been a blessed one. I can imagine maybe it might have been challenging for some people. Um if

it's not, then that's been fantastic. But whatever you've done throughout this week, I hope then you've come to the weekend and you're able to get some rest, recuperation or just some fun things, because I think sometimes we get to the weekend and sometimes we're so tired that it's just like, oh, well I can do is rest all the things that you want to do for yourself. Sometimes this goes by the wayside, but you blink it's Monday, then yeah, but you know, yeah, hopefully you've had a good week

and here we are so as per usual. If you'd like to join the conversation, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at studio at Adventist Radio dot London, or you can text us on eight triple two eight do you write Hope and then your message do yeah do contact us Today we're talking about being thank you being saying thank you and being grateful. Now why this topic I hear you ask, well, today as the first of July, and as I'm thinking about that, it's also Canada Day today.

So yes, so for any Canadian listeners, if anybody's out there, happy Canada Day. I could go into the history of that, but I won't. But tomorrow is actually thank You Day. Now. We've often talked about on this show. We're often, you know, looking at different things that are happening throughout the year, different awareness days, different themes and topics, and we've often said there is kind of a day for everything. And I know there are calendars out there that will tell you that there are is a

day celebrating something, but tomorrow is thank You Day. And really the idea behind this is an opportunity for you or for anybody to say thank you for anybody or everything that helps to make our communities great places to live in those people who have made an impact on your life, done something special for you and ultimately for if you're a Christian, and we'd like to encourage people to

do that is to really thank God for everything He's done for us. Often saying thank you generally sometimes kind of comes fairly comes naturally for some people, and often if somebody's done something for you, you're naturally going to say thank you as a response. But having said that, there are many times where we often don't sometimes take the time to really say thank you and appreciate whether it's people or situations or those people who have made a difference in your life.

And the idea has been for Thank You Day to actually do some of that. Give the opportunity. Now again, this is another sort of annual campaign, and there is a whole thing to kind of I know people may have been organizing events and activities. There was an official song which I think was thank You for being a Friend, and I know that was being sponsored by Music for Dementia. They'd put together a whole music passage that package there.

But it is a time to to recognize and to celebrate saying thank you, which again is a really important thing. And also you know we're saying thank you but also looking at the benefits of gratitude as well. So we're going to be playing some music throughout this we want to say thank you and give thanks. So if anybody's got any favorite songs, they'd love to hear that, dude, demonstrate how much they want to say thank you to God or to anybody. Please do message that as well. Send that in.

But we're going to go to a piece of music now anyway, I think you chose this one, Thankful by Mary. Mary started playing it, So we're going to go back to and also just encouraging our lists as well to let us know what they're that's for for yes, if you want to share a brief testimony, we'll be happy to put that on the ear for you. Yes, so let's get back to that one. Actually, no, I'm not gonna go to that one. I'm gonna go to thank you by

Smoking Norfeel Parts on my choice. Yes, yes, I love smoking awful and yeah, but the message is in there is in the lyrics. Okay, so we'll go to that one. So thank you by Smoky Dorfiel. I've had and I've happen, my heart has been broken and my life has been straight. But it in't Spider everything been through I Steve gotta say, I've been and i'fe been time had like turn turn turn complain all right, but it's Spider everything I feel through I Steel I gotta say thank you,

thank you, thank you for your many blessing. Spider my man, Lord, you look down and you're cuteless me. He even in the midst of my ten in spinding everything I step. Oh, thank you Jesus boy, your blessing in spider mind, Lord, do you bless me right, Dad, in the middle of my teens get Spider everything, Spider everything. But I yeah, thank you. Oh, I want to say. I just want to say thank you, cheesus. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Jeesus. Oh, I gotta say

thank you. Yeah, a little bit off I've done in my life. Yeah, the way you make me call the no. I want to say, yeah, you've done in my life. You've been Lord. Yea't you've been my protection of the way. I thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You still gotta look to heaven and thank you Lord. I thank you for every little bit of thing you've done in my life. Ah, I say thank you. I just want to thank you. How must I must? I shall say thank you? Oh, thank you,

I thank you. I just want to say thank you. Thank you. By Smokey Northfield. Now it's a powerful and powerful words in that so Zenia smoking off it, as I said, one of my favorite singers. That have had too many favorite singers, but this one. And when you spoke earlier about how our weeks have been and sort of offered to our listeners that whether it be up or down, and this song speaks to it. I've been up and I've been down, had my life turned completely around.

But in spite of everything I've been through, I still must say, got to say, should say even thank you, and for me, that's the essence of it all, being able to be grateful no matter what. It also brings to my mind the song it is well, It is well with my soul because really we have to learn that everything comes together and everything works out to those who love God and trust God, whether it be up, whether it down, whether it be good or bad, let's remember to give

him thanks. Yes indeed indeed yeah, definitely powerful words there. Um. Yes, So there'll be more songs coming through. Like I said, if anybody's got any favorites and we want to hit them, hear what you've got to say thankful for as well as the song says, you know, and as Zenya said, we go up and down, you know, life throws challenges at ours. But it's not even just about the challenges. We have good times as well. So even that kind of recognizing, you know,

the positives, the highs and lows, everything in between. So it's easier, it's easier to give praise and to give thanks when we are in the highs. Yes, yes, I think it's more challenging to and perhaps I've read somewhere and several quotes, et cetera, say that it is in the downs of life that we really ought to say praise and ought to give thanks, because I think that is that is the attitude that we need to have

and the attitude that we'll get us through it. Definitely quite important attitude that it's the praise in the midst of the trouble that will pull us through it, and that's important, definitely. And actually having that that attitude of gratitude, it's actually good for us. And we'll talk a little bit a bit about that. It's actually good for your well being and it's good self caring.

You know, they're buzzwords that we hear all the time, but actually, you know, and we can sort of say, you know, that's scripturally biblically based as well, So you know, there's a lot to be said about that. But as I was talking about, you know, thank You Day is tomorrow second of July. It's organized by the Together Cloelisition and what this year they'd kind of done a pole in terms of you know, it's looking at what people do and how people kind of interact with people.

So there was a pole by the walk, by the Walnut Pole, and it actually has some quite interesting things that it revealed. Despite the challenges and you know, for many of us over the last few years, it's been a really difficult, tough time. Obviously, we are post pandemic. It seems alms weird to say that. I've had lots of conversations with people recently who were just like, it seems really un I can't believe we kind of

went through that. You know, time has flown past and here we are, but things have not necessarily as much as that's over, and you know, COVID is still around and it's still kind of impacting people. We have gone into kind of economic crisis now, so you know, and there's lots that are happening that are not necessarily you know, I wouldn't necessarily say that

things have got much much better. They have in some respects, but despite that, the pole shows us that we are actually a nation of helpers. So if they're saying, you know, half of us fifty three percent will help our neighbors and friends with things like d I Y, maybe putting out your bins or just checking in on those who might be living alone or on their own. One of the key one of the big things that came out of the over the pandemic was about loneliness and you know how people were losing

connections with people. Whilst we have the technology to kind of connect in the virtual world, you know, personal interaction. You know, people weren't necessarily have not even having that, or they were having connections. You know, you're kind of in the house with people and sudden you're having to really interact. That's very different. But you know, people are checking whiles nineteen percent of people are running clubs events within their communities. So people are doing stuff

now. However, there is one group and a lot of people think that there are many sort of unpaid cares. So whether that's you know, whatever caring responsibility you have, are probably the kind of most under thanked group of them all. They're saying that fifty one percent of unpaid cares are not thanked enough for the work they do, followed by nurses at about forty six percent

paid carers. After that volunteers, cleaners, and refuse collectors. So those kind of people who maybe seem like they're behind the scenes in many instances, you know, and many I'm sure some of these roles. We take it for granted that you know, our rubbish will be picked up, or there are people who going to help to get things run. But actually they apparently are probably the post people who you know, we don't really thank them for

the work that they do. Thankless jobs, absolutely, absolutely, but really key to kind of keeping the society going at times as well. It also says interestingly that younger people, maybe in the ages of eighteen to twenty five, are twice as likely to say the arrange events or do activities to support those in need than the rest of the population, and they're also more likely

to recognize the support that others give to them. Now, I found that quite encouraging because sometimes young people, despite all the things that they may do, sometimes get a bad rep at times. But it's showed this pole is showing that actually there are young people who really do care about people and they want to help people and want to do stuff, and you know, often they're campaigning for different things. But the question is do we sometimes recognize that

and appreciated it and thank those young people. So it was kind of an interesting and it's kind of interesting that you're actually doing a survey on, you know, whether people do say thank you and appreciate what's happening around them. So the question would go out to everybody, to our listeners. You know,

do you regularly say thank you to people? Is it something that you do just when somebody does something for you as a natural emotional response, or is it something that you practice and you really go out of your way to recognize just because you know, to say thank you, to show your appreciation, to show your gratitude. So again, yeah, here's up with that to sort of see, you know, whether you do that sort of thing.

So we're talking about so we're talking about saying thank you and being gratitude. Now, if I ask asked the question what does gratitude mean? What would we say? What would you say, Zenya, gratitude means gratitude? I would have said that the words are interchangeable, gratitude and thankful. I'm sure you're going to to break it all down for me. But when I think of gratitude, I think of being thankful, being grateful for what's I don't know, for something that's happening, for me, going for me,

for someone, for something. That's where I think of or where I go when I think of gratitude. Gratitude. Yeah, you're right. So you know, gratitude is the Dictionary definition would say the quality of being thankful. And actually I did find it a really interesting article that actually did break down the differences of thank thankfulness, and gratitude about that. Yeah, but it's a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. It's one of the

many positive emotions that we have. And as you said, it is about sometimes it is about focusing on the good in our life and being thankful for the things that we have. It's also, and this is maybe what I'd like to highlight as well, is actually pausing to notice and appreciate those things that we often take for granted. So again that pole where they talk about, you know, the people who are the most under thanked groups in our society Again, do we stop and think or do we take them for granted?

You know, some of the things that we have. Many of us are blessed with having a roof, ever, a head, somewhere to live. We've got food, we've got clean water, friends, family, even the kind of you know, the technical side of life. You know, one of the things with the pandemic, I kind of look back and I think how difference it would have been if we didn't have technology that an able to do these things and what it's we can kind of it could be four

or against technology as it were. I'm really grateful that we did have those opportunities, you know, I mean without Wi Fi, I mean, I just don't know how people would have done. I mean, I was about to say I celebrated two birthdays during lockdown, and the first one I literally was in the house by myself. But I was able to have a zoom call or phone calls for people kind of to keep in contact. Just imagine

if you didn't have that. But you know, butv't said that. There are many people around the world who maybe don't have those opportunities and have those resources. But again, you know, how thankful and grateful are we? UM, you know, to have those things and to recognize those things and really appreciate them. UM. So I went to just to to mention. I went to a virtual conference UM a week of equipping women and UM.

One of the nights they were talking about how we as women and integrate ourselves into the community in essence and the things that we need to do that go beyond maybe in ministry that's not the term I want, but ministry that goes beyond the church walls. And a lot of suggestions we put forward, but one that representated with me that may have surprised others was she suggested a certificate

of thanks. That we generate a certificate of thanks and just fill them in as we go through the community, as we go through our day, for people who have gone the extra mile. And I really love that because that particular day, and I'm sorry I didn't say it on the conference, and I'll say it now that particular day. I have a love hate relationship with my bus drivers. Anyone that goes by bus, they must feel what I feel. But some days I'm like but but this day I was running late

for work and had I missed the bus. I would have been late, and I don't. I don't like to as hr with the gatekeepers of time, and I don't want to set that precedence, and I don't like to be late at all. And I run from one bus stop to the next in terms of connecting buses. So I'm trying to make the show. But one bus takes me to the to the next bus that I'd take for his two buses to work. And I'm chasing this bus down and the bus driver

hasn't even gotten to the bus stop and he stops for me. Now listen. I got on the bus and I said, thank you, thank you, thank you. You're amazing, You're awesome bus driver. And I wish I had a certificate to give him, because often there are days that I am at the bus stops door and the bus driver will still go past me. Yes, yeah, bus driver will see me running legging it and still

go past me. And for that guy to actually stop ahead of the bus stop because he knew I would never get there in time, um, I just I was like overwhelmed. I was so grateful that day had already started, you know a little bit haphazardly, and everything else, and I felt like crying. I was just so overwhelmed and so grateful, and I wish I had a certificate of thankfulness or you know, a thank you car. Maybe that's something I'll keep, because to generate a certificate may seem hard work

for others. But I'm sure if we go to one of the shops, they have little batches of boxes of thank you cars, empty cars that we can get and just leave in our pockets or handbags and just issue them as we go along for people who have gone the extra mile for us. And beyond that, when you say about the garbage man and all that kind of

thing, that to me just sounds so good. And these things are seeds that you saw, because I'm sure if I had something like that to give him the next time he's coming to the bus, but he would be inclined to stop for someone else because that ill. He share that with one of

his colleagues, and they might be inclined to stop for someone else. I'm not sure if they're supposed to. I guess a lot of people, a lot of the bus drivers live by the law and they're not supposed to stop outside the bus stop, and once the door is closed, they're allowed to drive off and all these kind of nonsense, but it doesn't take anything off them to do that. And I just appreciated that man. Up to now, how many months after, I'm still thinking this phrases. And the thing

is, it's made an impact. It's made an impact on you, and whilst you know, in the grand scheme of everything, it may seem really minor. And you know what, maybe he did it without even necessary thinking and you know, sure of you actually you know obviously you're thanking him there. And then sometimes you know, some of these things that happen, we just don't know the impact it's going to have, and it's you know,

it's made a difference for you. Really, Yeah, you know, had I done that, he would have had a look hard and maybe to stick in the bath, maybe someone will ask the question. Maybe your colleague would have asked a question. It might have been a seed that was planted that would have, you know, generate generated thankfulness throughout the rest of the day to other of his colleagues or someone else. Definitely, I really really thought that was a good idea when I heard it on the Okay on the program,

and I think it's something that we can top tip there. And you know some of the things we're going to suggest a few things that you know, ideas that we have in terms of what you can do for a different ways of you know, show appreciation, serving thankful this and what have you. So yes, so, certificates of thanks I love that, oh thank you, simple thank you cards, so yes, and you know, unultimately, as Christians, the idea of gratitude and appreciation is spread all through the

Bible. I mean, you know, it's the Bible teachers, and you know, when I was thinking about this today, there are so many Bible verses. I mean, when we think about, you know, the Bible being our guidebook, it's the book of knowledge, of information. It kind of has everything in there and whilst we have to put things into context and everything else, there are so many things that we can take from that,

and there are so many Bible verses about gratitude as well. You know, it helps us focus on the blessings of God and finding the blessings in our everyday life. As we were talking before, one of my story of the letter, oh do you know what I was? You took the words where iust at my mouth because it's actually when I think about because I'm trying to

also think about that. It's only you look at biblical stories and you think if you put that into modern terms, and the reality of that is, you know, those ten men had I don't know how life threatening, let prissy is, but let's say it is. It's a pretty serious condition. And you've been afflicted. You've have this condition, you know, it means that you you know, for them, they're cast out of the city, they're not in their communities, They're in a little place, you know,

they have to stick together, as it were. And then this man Jesus who performs miracles, has been doing all these things, telling amazing stories and what have you, says you know, yes I'm going to heal you. And I'm really prey facing this story here. I mean, that must have been just I mean to see that miracle knowing and I don't know how many years these people were had this condition, how many years their life has been

impacted. They can't do all the things that they wanted to do, they would like to do, you know, for many And I kind of think of that in modern time. You know what that would be like for somebody. Would that feel with a person feel like their life is ruined, they can't do all the things, et cetera, et cetera. Then suddenly one day they are healed. Now the fact, I mean, if I have a headache and I take I take particular headache tablet and I've visibly noticed that

my headache is gone, I am rejoicing. I'm saying thank you, and I'm thankful for the medication that I can take. I can thankful for maybe the water or whatever it is that's helped me. I'm thanking God sometimes because sometimes in a moment, I'm like, I need this headache to go. I can't imagine being in that situation and they're not saying thank you for that. I really I can't. I can't get my head around that. And the fact that out of those ten only one went back. I mean,

wow, yeah, exactly exactly. I mean to be healed, Oh my goodness. I'm not for that not to be the first thing that comes out. To be testifying and giving shouts and songs of praise, to be dancing all over and letting people know what God or Jesus had done for you. I mean, that should have been automatic. That should have been in the instant in the moment. I mean, when't you just said thank you? They're in there. I mean, yeah, that's right, that's right.

I've been. It's been lovelier to come back. But he went back to you. In your own mind, you're thinking, yeah, that would have been an automatic fall on your knees, prostrate on the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I mean, you know, first Sesalonians five eighteen reminds us to give thanks in all circumstances, you know, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That's ultimately what that should have been. And I kind of get the excitement because you know,

I guess from one it's like one extreme to the other. However, to for kind of forget yourself, I don't know. Yeah, listens today, you know, I mean, it's a story how many years old, but it happens today, and too often I feel and maybe it is the Maybe it's the big miracles that we say thankful for, thanks for, And I know I'm guilty of that. It's the major blessings, it's the major breakthroughs.

But I want to challenge our listeners to say thank you, even for what we may think as small nurses and small blessings, you know, finding the car keys or losing the car keys, as as as it may be. I mean, how many times have we been spared from from danger, etc. Because we were delayed and we didn't realize that that was what the delay was. We get all frustrated and flustered. But maybe that five minutes, that ten minutes meant that we weren't you know, in the middle of

an accident or whatever the case might be. Those little things that we got to say thank you for, you know, bus drivers who stop before they get to bus stops, or you know, finding something or whatever it may be. Just be grateful in all things, not just the major miracles, not just that the healing from bet I don't know, um, I want to say cancer, and it's a major thing. When I think of leprocy,

that's that's what comes to mind. Obviously it's not the same, but I think of I think of those major illnesses that you know, limit our lives, can be life threatening, and you think, had I been healed from canpher, I really want to believe that the first thing that would have come out of my mouth would have been thank you. But also I want to challenge us to say thank you for those small merses waking up, opening our eyes, being able to hear, to see, to to talk,

to walk. M we've got to be thankful there too. Yeah, I agreed, and which makes me brings me nicely in to be saying thank you to another person who has just joined us. Hey, it's Petro. Welcome, welcome, welcome, how you doing. I'm good, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to talking for me. I know I'm a little bit late. That's okay, okay, welcome to you. I know, but that's what I said. I said, it's come to you. It's just like a week like and I was like, oh man, But as I'm saying,

I'm like, uh, they're already into it. Peter, what are you talking about? That's okay, welcome anytime, and yeah, good course. And have you been Petro, I've been good. I've been good. Um had a my wife had a Huddersfield community choir was singing at an opening event that at a community center. So we went to that and then they actually started on time and finished on time. Cool. We was able to yeah, because you know, we talked about like what if they're little late,

but they started on time. Good. So we got there and we got done and rushed back home. And here I am me allowing me to get on for listening. I was listening to you guys on the way end. Yeah, I kind of had an idea what you guys were talking. I knew we was talking about. But you know what I mean, like you've been talking about and with the bus thing saying yes, there is actually a role that you're not supposed to stop off the bus stop. They can

actually believe it or not. As being a bus driver from mbum Guida, they can actually if the because they have like people that watch the buses can actually get fined. You can actually get fined or you can actually get things for stopping off the buses. Now, it's nothing wrong going to the bus and waiting. Yeah, I'll go to the bus stop and waiting. But

the bus is technically not supposed to stop. But but you know, but it's it's coming sense because there's been times when I was driving a bus I did stop when I saw somebody when you see them running, or people are like yelling, um, such and such a coming because everybody know everybody, so they're like, you know, Joan is running down the street, you know, because like you're past the street, you're past the street, you see them running, you know, you see them running up the street,

but not to the to the main street. So you running up to the main stream and the bus people like Joan's running to the street holding up, hold it up. So you know. So that happened a lot. Yeah, that happened a lot when I drove the bus, you know, like they you know. So yeah, and then she mentioned that actually going back

to that as well. I think also another impact of that is people watching, like I may if I'd still somebody running for the bus, I am willing that person and I'm so grateful again for the bus driver to stop because I'm not and that makes me feel good. Okay, they don't say nothing. They just sit there and look like, you know, stupefied. They're just like Bama. They definitely be watching for people because the same people get on the same bus almost the same time to get to work on time.

So they you get almost such a clock to certain people getting on the bus because you know, they get on every day at the same time, same spot. So yeah, yeah, it's a community, you know, that's what And yeah, everybody knows everybody. You got your your favorite bus driver at all this kind exactly. Yeah, you got something that you just cannot

stand that people will not even get on the bus. They see the bus driver and they're like no, no, there's a wait for the next one, or they just tell them to go on, Like yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. I've seen that happen too. So so Pet, we're talking about OK, we're talking about you than we're talking about thank you, thank being thankful and grateful. So I'm going to ask you the question, like, so, even this week or generally, UM, what would

you say you're thankful for? Um? Thank you, be thankful to be alive this morning, to wake up this morning, and as we always say that our favorite you know, wake up in my right mind, wake up my kids, waking up healthy, my wife, my family, friends. UM, just thankful that I have another day to serve God and just be here, you know, to do the things that I love. UM. I'm always thankful for the things that um happen, that happened to me. I don't ever think like, UM, there's a quote that says that UM,

God doesn't let things happen. They don't let things don't happen to you unless God lets it, unless God lets it happen. So I'm thankful for that. So even the bad things that may happen to me, sometimes I know that they will, um make me a better PERSONA So I try to learn. I try to learn from those bad things. I try to understand why did this happen to me? And then I thank God for learning that happened and showing me a way that I cannot make it better for myself.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm also thankful real quick. I know we're about to go to break, but I'm really thankful because I find out yesterday that my son, starting next year, will be head boy of his school. Yes, I'm really happy about that. Um, he went into be the head prefect. Is that boy depends on schools have different things, but yeah, but he went in to be that. He applied for that and they turned around and gave him a hit boy. Oh wow. So um, he's

very he's very excited about that right now. So I'm happy for him for that because for me, I don't even know this stuff is because you know, going up in the States, we don't have that burbage in the States, so coming here. I've been learning about it, and so yeah, it seems they have a lot to do with um or you'll know UM was that UM. I can't think of a word during the school they lead, do not lead the school. They will go in place of the school,

so like they will be there. Couldn't get the word out. They'll be a representative from the school, right, So I mean, and they have another girl, she's a head girl. And they're actually both black. And I say that only because the school is all white. Okay, So the fact that they will have a different ethnicity representing the school, I think it will be a good thing for the school going forward and would get them to

be better students and better teachers and better a better school. Yeah, I know you have to have so you have to have good grades to behavior and all that kind. Exactly. He has excellent grades, and I know that. I know the young lady that got it. I know she has excellent grades because he tells me about her. So they have they have that good grades, good character, good but good behavior. And what I'm really thankful about on anything, because I think I told you guys before, and I've

told the radio station before on not this station. But on the podcast that Junior really had a hard time his year seven and eight where he dealt with a lot of racism, he dealt for a lot of bigotry and a lot of people being mean to him. And the fact that he pushed through that and not same school, Wow, because the school was in the transition when

he first started. It was it was really a bad It was not a basketball but it was like the UM needs improvement, Like it was at the bottom of the rating the the report, and they that turnover, so they was building up the school. So as the years of one, they've gotten better and now the school is pretty it's got a good rating. No it's got a UM needs improvement, but that's better than what it was. They was happy for that because it shows that they're improving. So next year they

hope the next one they go up to go for good. But UM. So he had a lot of stuff that he had to go through. So the fact that he was able to push the last two years through that and now to become the head boy, it just shows the determination and the stamina that he has as a young man. So I'm really proud of him because you know, some kids would have just wiltered. Some kids would have just been like, oh you know, I'm just gonna try to make it to

leave or not want to go to school. But he just kept pushing. So I'm really happy for him. So I'm thankful for that and grateful both. Sorry which citizens was lovely into our feeling taken music break here. I think this is your choice. Actually, um petrom grateful by Jumping Key. Don't think specific about that song that um means something to you was relevant or obvious. I just love I just love the song. I just like I

like the beat, I like the song, I like the words. I just like the song and hole, I just like the what it means. Just be grateful, grateful for everything, Grateful for the rain, grateful for the sun, grateful for the wind, grateful for life. Just grateful for the snow. I'm grateful for the snow to actually I like the snow. Yeah, I remember he doesn't like the sunshine, as we keep selling us love the snow. Let it be snow right now they all day. Okay,

let's play m Grateful by John Peeky. Thank you for the morning. Thank you for then Tanky even to me, heive unto me. Thank you for the even my darkest kind you live. We see you shine your light on me, your grace and mercy sustay when I did not he who will to remain you have to do? When you saved my life, my past, he did not judge me. You reach out love me. That's why

I lay you all me all the time to save me. And I can't see my way, grating all the time to change my hardness, to wait for the all the time about your brothers, find myself in time of flow for me. Thank you for the sunshion you ate into my clown day. You shall need the way, gave al new meaning, gave me the will to leave again. You are my class spree. I owe my all to you. I spoke, you're reading and you rob me. Don't have to do it but you because time for my sins you you did not judge me.

You read. That's why I rate for you for me. Please before the time to lose my shapples on my dear gray, I make I can send to day. I'm play for ever on the time I name the same. I'm play my man, I die on me, I'm resigning. Who should I listen when I see it. I was waiting on mine larger the hardest time. My dad. Any morning I shun the program. Tell me I'm a bege. That's what I listen. So that's grateful by John p Key. Definitely need some great words in there to reminders, and as Pedro

said, it's about those everyday things to say thankful for. So we're talking about being saying thank you and yeah, being grateful. And you know, we've talked about we mentioned one story about as many stories and texts in the Bible about being grateful, and we spoke about the ten Leppers, and you know the realization of what that was. Somebody actually had a life changing illness condition was instantly healed and nine of them forgot to say thank you, and

any one came back. But what other stories or characters can we think about in the Bible? I think Pedro, you said you had someone that comes to mind. Yeah, I had only because today I was listening to a simmon at Chiswick's by all of m I forgot her last name Blackwell, and she was talking about Hannah, and I just thought, and I just thought that she was grateful. She was barren, she had been chastised by the other women. She loved her husband, she loved the Lord, and she

asked God, you know, to give her a child. And even though she didn't get it right away, she just kept her faith. And even though she worked a lot of anguish from deep pain, you know, she just cried to God and she said, you know, she asked God that if she gave her a son, that she would give him, you know, long, long length service. And so then God did give her a

son, and you know, she just the gratefulness that she had. She kept up promise, and of course, you know, she had Samuel, who was her son, and we all know what Samuel ended up becoming later on in the Bible. So I just thought of Hannah when you thought about being grateful. She was so grateful for the gift that God gave her that she kept up promise and she, you know, she served the Lord for

as long as she lived. Yeah, and you know, in a similar way as what actually it also brings her mind Mary as well, um, in the sense of you know, being grateful and thankful for being the chosen person to you know, bear Jesus in Luke one forty fifty five. You know, she talks about how her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices, and she was thankful even though it must have come as a bit of a shock to her that situation, on the realization of what was going to

happen. But again she kind of, you know, gave thanks for her situation and there are you know, um, and I think the idea like, yeah, there are, but you know, especially that you know, for women in terms of bearing children, and as you mentioned with Hannah, the fact that that was seen as almost kind of taboo as it were, you know, there's something definitely wrong with you, why this can't happen,

et cetera. And then the desire and not only then she kind of dedicated her son to the Lord and kind of sow that through because I guess it could have been quite easier to say, yep, if I have a child, I'll be as I promise that, but hey, I've got what I wanted now. Um. But she definitely followed through. Um, yes, definitely, But yeah, because I think grateful. I think being grateful is part of when you're grateful, you follow through with because sometimes to be grateful

you have you get something, So you're grateful for what you get. But just like in life, you know, like we get it and then we

don't, we become ungrateful. Yeah, definitely. So when you're to be grateful is to follow through with the promise for the things that you get and be grateful and always recognize, you know, like they say, you know, always you remember where you come from, Remember where you come from, remember how you got there, and always being grateful for the opportunity or the platform that you may have to to minister the people, to talk to people, to be there for people, but for your family, you know,

for your family, friends in general. Yeah, and I think I'm about I was just also saying that what about being thankful in the journey? That that for me is what the story speaks to. And even though it is twenty years, forty years, sixty years, however along the wait, are we going to be thankful and faithful through the process? Because I don't know, I'll be honest, I don't know if I could be. I don't know if I would be you know, um would I would? I really

be? Be faithful and committed to a God that let me wait ten years for my my answer, twelve years for my answer, you know, fifteen years for my healing, seventeen years for my blessing. I mean, this is what these these ladies did. Um, and you know that that's not easy to do, but it just shows that it can be done and that God's timing is perfect. Yeah. And I guess the key thinking that's about faith because we always talk about faith, you know as having faith and the

belief that God will do these things for us. And I guess that has to be real part of it to kind of keep us going as it were, because I guess if you think about it, if we knew this was going to happen, would that make a difference for us, Like if we could kind of foresee the future and say, okay, it may take ten years, right, but I know it's going to happen, would that make

our experience, our journey would be very different. But we we are we are encouraged to have the faith that we can believe that God can do all things and can do for us. Yeah. So that's an interesting one. I think that's what the stories are. The stories are there to show us what we can and cannot do, and to show us that we can.

Right. It's like it's like a blueprint for what we should do. And just as an example, like say a single person that's looking for a spouse and they're twenty and you know, young, and they want to spouse so bad, and they're like, Lord, send me somebody. And then you know, year by year goes by, you still don't have anybody, and you're waiting, and you're waiting and waiting, and you're waiting and you're just

like, Lord, is you ever going to happen? And then and then you know it could take ten years before you finally find the right mate. Could you go? You decided your own Oh, I want this person and it's the wrong person, you know, So that I mean, that's just like I just I just popped in my head and that's that's true. And it's having That's what I mean. It's about having the right attitude through the

way right. And that's the hardest part because you're sitting there waiting, you want it so bad, you just like you could taste me like I just I just need it, I need it now, I need it now. And he's like God, just like no wait. You're like, but I can't wait. He's like just wait, yeah, And it's not getting angry, not getting angry at God, not getting as you say, not not taking myself into my own hands. You know what, God, if you ain't gon provide me with a husband, I'm just gonna go to the local

class and then under the purses of God gave it. But yeah, I was just gonna pick up anybody whose free is available, um and then we all know how that can that can end up. Or even if you're praying for our healing and you know, we're like, okay, are we going to be miserable for the process, miserable for the through the weight, or are we still going to give him praise and giving fact for the for the

journey, you know, for the process. You know, back in the day, I read a book and it was a it was a yellow book. It's a Christian book. It has had a smiley face on it, and they talked about um being happy through everything and even when you're sick. If you can be happy while you're sick. And I know this sounds weird and it sounds hard, but if you can be happy while you're sick, you will heal faster than when if you um become depress us or if you

start saying I'm gonna, you know, like I'm sick. I'm you know, I you know, I star like I'm gonna die, like I'm sick, I don't feel well because your mind will be like, well, you're sick, so I'm gonna continue to be sick. But if you can, if you can, and it's a hard thing to do, but if you can, like bring happiness, like people that get cancer, they can, you can. Part of the part of the thing of beating cancer is to be Um, yeah, it's to be thankful. And I know that sounds

weird, but it's true. It's to be thankful and say, Okay, God, we can beat this. I can beat this with your with walking with you, I can beat this because you have to believe. You have to be grateful. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but yeah, it was just a book that I thought was very interesting that I read back in the day. But well, that's I mean, as you say that, the idea has been actually quite a bit of research done on this.

Actually gratitude and giving thanks can actually they say, can actually make you happier, is good for your well being, good for your overall mental health as well. You know where you've definitely definitely, yeah, gratitude. We're acknowledging the good things in our life or even the situations in our life that we can take things and recognize you lessons from. But it's also a lot of sort of positive psychology. When they've done the research gratitude is it's strongly

associated with greater happiness. I mean they sort of you know, search has shown that if you adopt the attitude to gratitude, you are often happier, you may have more friends, and it enables you to feel more positive emotions. You are you know, looking at those good experiences, those positive experiences and all those things can help you build you on your resilience, help you deal with the challenges that you can come across, and also building healthy,

strong relationships and connections with people. So it's quite interesting that you say, you know, these things can be linked. And as you know, there are many have we talked about there many verses in the Bible that can that

can attest to them as well. And you know, I was looking at some of the research that's been done and you know, they've looked at there was one research studied that sort of they got two groups together and they were asking one group to write things that they were grateful for that occurred during the week. The second group wrote about their daily sort of irritations and the things

that had displeased them, things that they weren't happy about. And then the third group just wrote about offense and things that happened to them, with no kind of real emphasis on whether it's positive or negative. So they did this for about ten weeks, and they found that those who wrote about being gratitude and being grateful were much more optimistic and felt much better overall about their their

lives. And interestingly, they said that they exercised more and they had few fewer visits to the doctors than those who were focused on their sources of aggravation and irritations. Um. So again it's about that sort of positive thinking. Now, whilst that may not necessarily be, you know, the answer to everything, because as we know, despite the challenges will come our way and

sometimes it can be tricky to focus on those things. When you when you do focus in a positive way and you are recognizing gratitude and you're grateful for the things that are happening good, bad, maybe indifferent, it definitely can give us a different perspective on the way we view things. What do we think about that in terms of you know, I mean the research is showing the Bible will tell us. What do we think that. I wouldn't disagree.

I haven't done any researchself, but only in my own experience I can say that it is true. There's nothing like a positive outlook that will change your perspective for the day. You know, it's often been said that you've got to speak life and speak positivity and surround yourself with positive people, and all of that comes from, in my mind, an attitude of gratitude.

As any you work in HR, and I wonder whether you know, you have ever seen or you kind of know when you're doing any training what have you what the difference will be with say, managers and their employees or leaders and their employees who do actually remember to say thank you for things? You know, what impact that has on their staff or their teams where that makes a difference to the matter what they do. I guess if people know that

they're being appreciated, I'm sure that makes a big difference. Oh, that is often a very important arm to HR being able to roll out appreciation and sort of nominating your yourlleague of the month and colleague of the year, and that process of highlighting persons who have done a great job and an excellent job, and that even is a section, but on a day to day basis, there's nothing wrong with just cornering a colleague and saying, you know what,

thank you for yesterday is an excellent job yesterday. And colleagues who hear that, and employees who hear that put more effort in because that makes a difference. When you feel appreciated, and when you feel that what you're doing makes a difference and counts towards the greater good, then it makes a difference

to what you do. And the opposite also applies. Yeah, if you're coming into day by day and no one ever shows an appreciation, no one ever says that you for good job, and unfortunately you have that coupled with the nitpicking or the blaming or you know, the same managers who don't say thank you, always equipped to criticize, always see the mistakes, and you know, you put all that together and it destroys morale h team. It's

just, yeah, there's a whole life. There's a whole world of research that says that thank you makes the difference, and colleagues and employees who feel that go the extra mile. Yeah, yeah, I think on that note,

on that note, what you're talking about. I think that when the HR or when the manager or something is like always saying thank you, even though you're like, oh I don't I'm just doing my job, but it still feels good to hear it. But I think when the manager does come and say to you, Okay, you did this wrong, because if they are, if they're constantly giving you praise, when they do, because they do have to come time and say, oh, you did this wrong or

you know this problem of rose, you don't react the same way as if they was always just nagging you or picking on you like you like. It makes a difference because you're gonna have to sometimes. You have to be able to take criticism. You have to some you do make more human We make

mistakes. So the manager still has to come to you sometimes and say, hey, you know you forgot this or you did that, But your your response, I mean, my response would be different because my manager is always saying, you know you're doing a good job, you know this, but you know every now and then you do. I think it just helps.

It helps on both sides. I don't know if you see that being an HR, yeah, I feel you are more resleptive to the criticism if you've had the praise right, You're more receptive to the criticism if you have the praise right, absolutely right, because you know that they're not just nick they're not just picking on you, or they're not just oh, you're always doing this wrong or you're always you know, doing this, and you're like,

Okay, maybe I actually did something wrong, and then you actually sit there and listen and say, okay, whe did I do wrong? How can I fix it? And then you go fix it or whatever the situation maybe, and it shows that you're being fair because as you said, there there are times as a manager that you have to criticize or you'll have to you know, flag a mistake. It may be something that's quite significant and if it's left to continue, then you can have you know, far reaching impact.

So you have to say something, um, but if if you are, sometimes you deliver that on the back of on the back of praise. You know, there's there's a whole there's a whole book on that that if you're going to say something negative, you know, package it amongst you know, two or three positive things up. I've been there putting a little set up. Yeah, do you want to get the good news for us or the bad news first? Um, there's a lot of research and et cetera

to ship to show that. But yeah, it makes for a better environment, meant yeah, if you have that full picture, that's full package to praise. Yes, and you know, if you you have to I criticize in doing it in the right way as well. If there has to be some criticism or some you know, um, correction always criticism, think it's negative. Sometimes it's just correction. Yeah, if it has to be the system, maybe you wrote the name wrong, or you forgot a letter,

or you forgot to take something. I mean that's not negative for criticism, That just in a mental error that you know that needs to be fixed. So I think it's more like sometimes it could be just correction. Yeah. And it goes even beyond the HR or the employer employee relationship, but it goes through every relationship. I mean that's a husband and a wife, a mother and a son, whatever. It man be a father and a daughter,

whatever, whatever, the relationship. It's really really important to have balance. And if you're always being negative, you're always nitpicking, you're always criticizing, etc. Then it just it just makes for a very nasty relationship or or you know, it's not where you can grow and bloom and blossom if you can package it in praise or even I want to say, I would do the negativity, negativity with the positivity. If you've got to air on

one side, ad say be positive. You know he praised on someone. It really it shows, Yeah, it shows you can tell an environment where people are praised for what they do and the contributions they make. And just telling someone I love you and thank you, thank you for watching the dishes yesterday, thank you, thank you for being there, thank you for your love and your kindness towards me goes a mile. It's funny as you said that, because, um, well I was just talking about with my son

doing he did the letter. So when we got home, my wife and I got home, he had wrote the letter himself, and he was so proud of the letter he wrote. But he had made a couple of mistakes and he had wrote it on just on just regular paper. He just wrote on some you know, random paper, ripped off the paper and just wrote it. So it was like, Son, you know, you need to

fix a couple of things and put it on better paper. And at first it's like, I'm not rewriting this, and I'm like, but we're trying to explain, you know, make it look more professional, make it look more you know, presentable, you know, And so at first he was kind of like, oh, and you know about this then because you have the same age, you know, like, oh why should I and like son, then you know this is why you do this, and then explaining

it. So at first he took it as we was being critical, but as he listened to us, he realized we were just trying to help him. So after he wrote it, he went to my wife and he said, you know what, I'm glad you made me rewrite this because this actually does look better. So when you're talking about it, just it's it's in family life is and work isn't, friends isn't isn't everything. Just it's something that we can do throughout our you know, daily use our daily life,

which kind and didn't you say that as well? Sorry, didn't you say that as well? That it's strengtheness a relationship, and that that for me, is what it's all about. It's strengthened whatever the relationship is, whether it's you know, a professional relationship or otherwise, it's strengthens the relationship. When that's one of the benefits of saying thanks and thankfulness and gratitude, I think it's cements and strengthens the relationship. And therefore, on the basis of

that, other things can do using from it. Yeah, definitely, which kind of as you just segments nicely to what I's going to say, I came across a quote that was saying, gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates

a vision for tomorrow. Which you know, and I think we mentioned before that the difference between thankfulness and maybe gratitude, it's how far that goes. It takes that one step further, you know, Sometimes thankfulness is an emotional reaction to something that might happen in the moment, as much as you may continue that, but gratitude takes that one step further. Where you are, the way in which you live your life, what you're recognizing, what you're

appreciative, it's a chosen state of being, as it were. You know. Well, that makes me think of the difference between happiness and joy. Maybe, yes, yes, that's very similar analogy. It seems joy runs a bit bit deeper and perhaps gratitude runs a bit deeper. And I think, you know, you can choose to cultivate that kind of attitude of gratitude

within your life. You know, it's how you see things Pedro mentioned before about you know, as much as you're grateful for things, things that happen that are good and positive for you, even in those challenging times, if you can look at that and say, Okay, I'm grateful for the experience, what can I learn from that? You know? And the Bible is teaching us to be kind of grateful in all things. But how do we

do that? Because when we're going through that challenge, being thankful is probably maybe the last thing on our minds, really, um in terms of what we want to do about that. But if all things work together, and we must understand that whatever we're going through, good or bad, there's a purpose. Yes, yeah, I think that's really where we've got to think and let our minds go. There is a purpose to it. If it's if our garden father loves us um and he's allowed us to go through.

I think of job wisdom, what a story, yes, everything everything and still praise God. Yeah. Well, well but if he can do that, it's true. It's true. Again, it's impossible for us. I know because again, yeah, he went through I mean you know, he he went through it. You know, every possible thing that possibly could go wrong that he could think about when he'd gone through and went wrong in a short space of time, and talk about calamity and to say he will not

he will not be moved. He will still despite in spite because of give thanks to God and praise God and served God. Well, yeah, so we will yeah, I don't know. Yeah, And he talks to think about these stories, You're just like, wow, wow, could I Yeah, I don't know. Might I cuts God and die? I don't know. But when you see God says considered my servant I'd love him to be able to say that about me and about you. Yeah. And again my

servant. Yeah and again I've put her through and whatever I've allowed her to go through, I know that she will come through with victoria. Yeah, and that's that. And again the difference between sort of thankfulness and gratitude. The thankfulness may fade because it's in that moment, possibly, But gratitude is that kind of you know, it starts there, but you know it's a

continual thing. You want it to remain. Yeah, and deepen that connection that we have so we can take another Actually, this is not another piece of word this music. This is a spoken word piece by Motion Worship, so spoken word of thanks. And again I really liked what it was saying, and it's kind of really been kind of highlighting what we've been talking about today. So we're going to take a listen to the spoken word of thanks.

Give thanks for the good days, when the traffic lights all turn green, when promotions come and bad habits are broken. Thanks for warm meals and the company of friends. Give thanks for undeniable blessings and clear direction. When the music floods your soul and the worship songs flow without effort. Give thanks for coffee and clothing, and hope that the two never mix. Give thanks for the mother who battles daily in prayer, for the father working three jobs.

For the brothers and sisters who build blanket forts and read bedtime stories. Give thanks for sons and daughters and all our family who remind us of what truly matters. Give thanks for the stranger who holds the door open and the lifelong friend who holds you when life is broken. Give thanks for the hard days, for the phone call that brings life crashing down, for jobs lost and friendships fallen into conflict. Give thanks for the anger that reminds us we

are human, and the tears that express more than words can effort. Father, give thanks though the pain is overwhelming, your energy spent, your spirit falling, and your only option is to fall to your knees before your Holy Father and cry out, God, please help me, for in that moment, his power is made perfect, his love is made evident. He becomes

your strength, your comfort, and your salvation. Give thanks for the power of redemption from Genesis to Revelation, for the endless promises of a God who would rather sacrifice his son than give up on his children, for nail pierced hands, for brilliant dawns, for the cool touch of rain, and the simplicity of a quiet day, For all things great and small. Let us give thanks, Let us give thanks. And again, as I was saying, that basically really summed up a lot of what we were talking about on

this piece here, more things great and small. Yeah, it's just thanks for them all. Yeah, it's like a moment there to kind of think about that. And again that kind of really went through. And ultimately, if we're saying thank you to God and to Jesus, to God for kind of sacrificing his son, allowing him to come down live amongst us, and for the sacrifice and the difference the impact that he made, which you know,

we are saved by grace at the end of the day. And you know, sometimes we think about those smaller things that may have a really big impact. There's nothing greater than what Christ has done for us and the sacrifice that He's made for us. Yeah, all of those things, let us give thanks. So we've talked a lot about, yeah, being thankful and what that's like, and you know what we can do, So how can we I guess, thinking about how can we adopt their attitude of gratitude,

how can that become, you know, part of our daily lives. We mentioned a couple of things. I really love the ideas, and we talked about, you know, a certificate of thanks or giving people thank you cards. But I know, and there's one of the things that I know, and I work as a well being advised as many of you know, and one of the things I often say to just my students and often, you know, this is an exercise that we can all try, is actually thinking

about journaling and starting a gratitude journal. Now there's various ways to do this, whether you handwright this or it could be digitally on your phone or on a laptop or even voice recording notes and stuff as well. Actually recognizing, you know, what you can be grateful for. And a simple exercise of every day is to think of three things that you're grateful and thankful for.

And I have to say to students, you know, try that, you know, especially when you know things are often I speak to students and they're having a bit of a challenge, they're having a challenge, and sometimes it's really difficult for them to kind of see the positives in anything that they're doing. You know, you've got something going on for you, and the world seems very very dark, But actually, what can you focus on and think

about three things? Three is quite a good number, not too many, not too little, And to kind of try and record that every day, and then I encourage them to kind of go to come to the end of the week and just reflect back and the sort of thing. Actually, if you've done that every day, my maths is terrible, but there'll be twenty one things of things that you can be thankful and grateful for. My maths

is terrible. I'm not ashamed to admit that. But but again, that's a very simple exercise to do, and I would encourage anybody out there to do that as well. I'm thinking as well, you can think about that.

We've talked of a couple of texts as well, but there are so many texts in the Bible, and if it meant sort of kind of picking one every day and using that as your kind of your focus every day to kind of base your day on sort of you know, a text of gratitude, a text of thank you, thankfulness, that can be another way. So Pedro's DNA, any other kinds of ways that you think we can adopt

this at you to gratitude. I think you've sort of covered where I was going to go in terms of journaling, And in fact, the song comes to mind, and maybe if we've got time, we might find a version somewhere on the system. But count your blessing, name them one by one,

and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. And I feel if you're if you're making a special effort to pull from your day the things that you're grateful for, the things, the wonderful things that have happened to you and for you, then there is really little space and place for being miserable or happy or you know, once your day is filled with that attitude

with gratitude. As you said, so journaling I totally agree with and using scriptures, maybe you know, plastering them over your walls, you know, and your note your bulletin board at work or whatever, so that whenever you are feeling down or whenever you look up even there will be a reminder.

And there are several scriptures in the Bible about about thanksgiving, and I would would even want to encourage you to share that we spoke earlier about the certificate of thanks or the thank you card where you can just write it up and give it to random strangers who have gone the extra mile for you or you know, you know, do a service for you on a daily basis that probably don't get planked enough. Your your local bid man, or your your

nurse or even your doctor, teaachers. And it's coming to the end of school years or the school year, if you know, young people want to say thank you to their teachers and um the staff at their school. Because it's not just the teachers. Here we go again. You know, they have several people who work within that support team and often it's to teach, do that maybe get to thank you the janitor, etc. So just say

thank you to them all. And as well of as sharing that, why not just calling a friend, calling a member of your family, someone you haven't spoke to in a very long time or you haven't said thank you to enough, and saying it, yeah, thank you and meaning it, and just make that a special task of yours to say thank you to someone or say thank you to something that you maybe overlook. Maybe it's your husband or

your wife or whatever. Just make a note of it to make sure the next time they do that that you thank them and maybe put your words into action. So if you want to take it to step further, take them out for a meal. Maybe it's flowers, you know. Um. Put Yeah, I'm pushing you now to make it tangible because sometimes words are not enough. UM. Sometimes it's better we see you if you reciprocate. Yeah, so you know you've you've massaged my back today, Maybe I massage your

feet tomorrow. Um. So we just been saying thank you tangibly to those around us who make a difference in our lives. And yeah, ultimately the most thanks goes to the most high Yes, definitely, And as you as you talk about actions, another thing that you could do to show gratitude is actually sign up to volunteer somewhere. Um, if there's an organization or a charity or something you know giving you of your time's a great way to share

that you're grateful for. Um, to show your gratitude and resources as well. Yeah, maybe you want to donate to Definitely, And you talking at the top of the hour of you know, the help that you get that you so much appreciate with your mom. And you know, so many of us, in one way or the other get support from you know, various charities, et cetera. But the only way they thrive and survive as if people give back. Yes, so, um, and I'm going to shamelessly

plug a pentuspadia here. Um yeah, yes, I had the ministries are on the radio. Then yes, gives that tantibly. Um, that's a great way to say thank you. Yeah. Yeah, because you know, you know, when we help others, you know, we've we're reminded of the things that we have as well, and you know, hopefully that helps

us to feel grateful for things as well. Um. So giving of your time, giving of your resources, you know, um, having a good declutter of your wardrobes, you know, to give to a charity shop, that kind of thing, you know, Um, can all make it all make a difference. I mean, and it's a whole idea of giving back as well and paying it forward. Yes, you know, Um, any thoughts on that, petro Yeah, I was I'm thinking, um pretty much

everything you guys just said. Um being gratitude, by just being joyful, by just um being joyful all the time, by um always smiling, always helping others, never thinking of yourself in the sense of you know, what can I get out of this for myself or what can I get out of it for other people? You know, as you said, UM, giving

back, pay it forward. UM. Always helping, you know, helping somebody, stopping and just letting the woman and the child cross the street, you know, because they're on a busy street and they're just trying to get across and they can't get a cause because the cause are just flying by.

UM. Just always daily UM, having a smile on your face. I think having a smile on your face every day on the just generality, just a general over day can make you can see people just start smiling back at you, even when they're even when they're frowning, they just had naturally smiled back at you and you never know how. Or just saying hello, like I think you all so much earlier. Just saying hello or thank you UM constantly will make a person's UM, they be so much better, you know.

Making when you call somebody on the phone saying how you doing, how is your day? How is you how is your day going? Asking them a question, UM, asking them UM, you'd be surprised how many times people may even say to like, nobody ever asked me that question, but they work in customer service, so you know you'd be surprised, you know,

so anything I'm sorry to cut you. No, I mean no, it's said I maybe maybe some people, some some folks that I speak to, they they say that they don't they have never heard a person say thank you or like keys in point. I actually had to call somebody yesterday and there was something and at the end I told her, I told her, you know what, I love the UK and she was like wise like, because you do, you can call and talk about whatever problem you're having.

And I just want to say thank you. And she was like what And I was like thank you and she was like, nobody says that to me. So it does happen. It does that. It literally does happen. So just you know, bring that joy. So backs they say it's harder, it's harder to frown than it is to smile, more muscles to frown than it does. So why can't we all smile and be you know, I'm not saying I have to be like, you know, like happy, like you know, happy, like you know, jump into the streets of

singing a song. But you know, you can still be happy, you could be joyful. And you also to think about you know, if you if you have a spirit of gratitude, what does that say to about you as a person as well? You know, how does that really how does that influence your life and impact Because you talked about being joyful, do you think that makes us less selfish in things, makes you less selfish, makes you healthier? Yep, it doesn't make it healthier. Like I'm forty nine

and I don't take any medicine. I don't take any medication. Now I do have aches and pains because I'm forty nine, But I really do believe. My mother is older than me obviously, and she doesn't take it any when people act. When she went to the doctor and he said what medicine is doing, She's like nothing. He was like shocked. And my mother's want to That's what I was going. Sorry, So growing up, my mother and my father taught me to be joyful all time. And my father

did dive cancer from when he worked in a mechanic as a mechanic. But my mother, um, she's my mother's one of the most joyful people you will meet. She's always smiling, always got something positive to say, always got something you know. I think even when she's upset, she will still be positive about being upset. I don't know how my mother does it, but she does it. And um she to this day. She don't take medication, she don't take um. She don't have a leading any health issues.

And I found myself doing the same thing, following her, following her footsteps. Where like it's easy. I'm not saying I have bad days. I still have my days where I'm just grumpy, yeah, because I'm human. But to being joyful, I think it does help you to be more healthy, more upbeat, more energy, more every things in general, things

that you take for granted. Yeah, well if strus, if strust is a silent killer, then the gratitude of gratitude must think, you know, the opposite, must give life and health and strength, because both I think can't reside in the same heart. If you're being grateful and you've got nattics with regret to you, then you know the stress and the moaning and the complaining and all that kind of filters out. But again it is not easy

to do. It is not easy to do, as humans. I think our DeVault or default position is to complain, to moan, you know, to to to say all that's wrong and you know, awful with the world and everyone in it. But um, as Christians, that certainly shouldn't be

our our position, and it shouldn't be our desire. It should always be to give that science for all that we that we have folks out here in the brit and they do that that's that's actually your your forte as they say, like folks in the States would say that the Brits are always complaining about everything. If it's too sunny, it's too hot, if it's raining, it's raining. It's like you guys, it's like you can never be happy. I go out to the house and they're like, why are you from?

Why are you here from New York? You soun an American And I'm like, well, I'm British of Bermuda. Oh why are you here? You let Bermuda. I'm like, I love it here and they're like, why do you love it here? The weather? And I'm like, what's wrong the weather? And they're like, oh, it's raining, okay, the ground is getting water, the grass is getting you know, wet.

Um, it's not like if it's too sunny. Oh the sun okay, well you know it's it's brightening up to day like and they look at me like I'm crazy because I'm like, what all A few folks like it's it's it's good, it's it's a really I think me personally, I love it here. The weather doesn't bother me at all, you know it could you know it doesn't. I like, I love the weather, so as the sun I just had don't like the sun? The sun is were here, yes, and that is right I do, and maybe that's why. Oh

yeah, let's see, look here we are complaining about this. I'm not complaining. I had to say that, you know, I had to say that I sent out some feelings amongst that my friends and a couple of message just coming through. I don't know if any have come through to the studio. I'm hoping that we've heard from one or two listeners, but um, a couple of messages that have come through is I'm thankful for life, thankful for health, friends, um, nothing that we have not mentioned before.

Thankful for friends, family. Um, so that's basically what's coming in. Yeah, similar actually, um, grateful for God giving life and good health and thankful for protection. Um. You know, if there's so much happening at the moment, you know tomorrow is not a given. So every day you say we wake up, Um, another one was grateful for their journey for their children. Um yeah, and let's had another one again, grateful for health, they were ill, they've got got better or on their journey

to getting better. So again, um, all of those things can. Yeah, people are thankful for we're grateful for um. And doesn't it doesn't it formal testimony a lot when we go through things. When we do, I take the words out of your mouth again, you literally did, literally did because again looking at kind of carry on all the benefits of being grateful. But yeah, that's for me. Our testimony is sort of based on

what we go through and what what we are most thankful for. In fact, Alabasa Box is a song that comes to my own when we when we when we talk about grow grateful and gratitude in that Here is a lady who whom she's sort of outcast, She's a sinner. You know, why is she around Jesus? Why is Jesus allowing her to touch him? And to a minister to him, and everybody's like questioning, and Jesus says, well, you know what, she's grateful, that's why. And if you were

forgiven much, you'd be grateful for much. And that forms a lot about testimony. If you've been through a hard time in terms of sickness, and when you've been healed or when you've come through, then you dance a bit more and you shout a bit more about your healing. And that's for me a lot of where we find our testimony, where we find our joy, where we find our happiness, where we find our thankfulness, it's after we've

been through. And maybe that is the purpose. If I'm to think about why God puts us in those positions and footsoing those battles, it's so that we can be a little bit more thankful on the other side, not become placent, not to take him for granted. Yeah, and that reminds me of First Corinthians fifteen, verse thirty seven fifty seven. I should say thanks

be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that's exactly that definitely there and again there are so many you know, and also, our gratitude is a you know, the highest form of one

of the world you know, forms of worship as well. When we think about Psalms, of how many texts they're about thanksgiving, praise, worship, you know, it's all about that that gives us an opportunity to say thank you and recognize, you know, and again that could be another way of Again we talked about the verse that you can find, but you know, Psalms is a great chapter to start David worship. Definitely, yeah, definitely. So you know, there are definite benefits to being thankful. Um,

we're talking about, you know, how we can be thankful. There are we're given the greatest thanks to our heavenly Father, but there are people around us who make our world much better, you know, in our community with it's in the general community or in our families, with our friends, you know, and it's really important. So we want to encourage you not only today and tomorrow as it is thank You Day, but also to be thankful all year round, um too. Yeah, have that have that attitude of

gratitude. M And as we're coming to the end of our show, we've got another guest too, has joined us today Hello, Michael. One of our reasons that therapists from a little while all the way from um British Columbia, Munny, Canada, Canada, Canada, day to day or tomorrow, it's today, today, today, So indeed, so in our sort of closing thoughts and actually this was segment nicely into what we come to the end,

we've been talking about thankfulness and gratitude. UM, So for you, Michael, I guess what I can say is you know, what are you thankful for? And you know why? Is it important? We've talked about

lots of reasons and what have you. What can you offer, as you know, as a kind of our final thoughts on gratitude, why we should be thankful, why we should adopt this actually the gratitude, Yeah, why why I'm going to start off buy embarrassing you by embarrassing you if I'm to say what I'm thankful for outside of thankful to God for it really has done for me, especially this year in accomplishing some of the things I have. I'm thankful for my family the support that they have been and are to me

that they're just comfort for me. But I'm also thankful for Angela. I'm actually growing. I would say, I'm growing in grace. I am growing in understanding what love is. I'm growing in patience. I'm learning more about me because of who she is. I'm because of our circumstance. She's she no, not me, she is thousands of miles away, and and and it's it's just great to be able to connect the way the way we do and learn. So I'm so grateful for for and well, thank you.

And when I went when I face as your I'm Michael, I had to say that people, that's okay, oh good, oh good, Sorry, I think not not at all. I also think that you guys have covered the subject so well. The program has flowed so so nicely. And when I think of when I think of gratitude as well, it's all about knowing that it's not only me, it's it's what's happened to me, how others have used other things to support me, and how I have grown. So

I am literally grateful for the experiences that I actually go through. And I think when we self reflect and look at the things that have happened to us and how we have come through, it tells us a lot about ourselves, you know. And Therefore, a sense of gratitude is great and also tells us as Christians. It really does tell us that even when we cannot see or feel God. And I think Angela mentioned this earlier on, to have

faith that He is there and He is walking us through. And therefore, go to the end of the Bible, go to the end of the story, go to the end of the book, and know that you know it's going to turn out. Okay, I don't know how it's going to turn out, but because He is with me, I know it's going to turn out all right. And it gives that sense of peace, that sense of

calm to one. And that's what I think thankfulness and gratitude does. It brings happiness to others, and it brings a sense of peace and calm to ourselves. Sure love that, love that, and oh as for usual, we've got them so much more. I'm thinking, okay, this good seguate it so much more. But again, like possibly a part two, you know, saying thankful, saying thank you can happen any time of the year, not necessarily on the second of July, but in my closing moments,

that's want to thank you listeners for joining us on talking point. I want to encourage you to adopt that attitude of gratitude, recognize a small, the large, the things that happen in your life that really impact, and also think about how you can impact people and the things that you do as well. So, as we're closing, Michael, would you pray for us and

pray that you know we can be grateful. We've got three minutes we as you finish on time today because there's a special service happen Pragram happening afterwards, and then we're going to close that with a piece of music. So everything and Michael to pray. Thank you, Father God. We're just saying thank you, thank you for who you are, thank you for what you've done

in our lives. And may we become a reflection of you, a reflection of gratitude, a sense of calm, a sense of who you are, a sense of a great and magnificent God who is willing to be in our lives. Thank you so much, and maybe forever be grateful. Man. So thank you for listening to us today on talking Point. Um again, we're thankful, And with that we're going to close up with Mary. Mary, before you do that, can I say a quick quote. It's just

based on what he was just talking. Michael was just talking about very quick we've got life. Yeah, yeahs when life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate where life is better, say thank you and grow. Oh nice. I found it earlier when he was I was like, we'll use it. Yeah, I love that. So Yesians five six to eighteen with Joyce always pray, continually give fans in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you. In um thank you. It's been talking points, so thank

you for myself. Angela. Then yeah, Pad and Michael, Michael, thank you for joining us in the last few minutes. U have a good rest of the evening. There's a program going to be broadcast from Wilsdon after straight after us, and I hope, I pray that you do have a wonderful week coming up. So we're gonna finish off. It ends with Mary Mary and thankful. Oh Lord, I'm thankful for my blessing, everything that you gave times when danger was around me my life. Lord, you say,

where would I be without Joel Love? Will would I be without Joel brain? He didn't have the doing, But I can't attend that word of God. I got it on my own. Never remove that to me. Can't say you've never been at home when a fair pay me up again, or I blot it all myself. I can always depend on you whatever I need. My day around me, my life looking without show, come up

without your face. You didn't never do it. Next time you call you wake up all right, will remember that he kept the same through the night. Need your hand and raise them high. This is why you say you did. Didn't have to get me time where the bank danger men? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you gave me my day. I'm wow. Game made all the times the same Bottom Adventist Radio, London inspiration for the song