The 6 Characteristics of an Everyday Stewardship for Lent – Grateful

Happy Birthday! It may or may not be your birthday now, but I know it will be coming up at some point. I hope you receive many cool presents and get to spend quality time with friends and family. On special days like birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries, it is good to celebrate. After all, we need some fun and celebration in our lives.

But what about the day after? Presents remain, but the presence of others may be over, and it is back to the daily grind. Yesterday, you were filled with gratitude. You hold the memory of yesterday still close so that fuels you for the day. However, how about 2, 3, or 4 days from then? The truth is that many joys in this life cannot stay with us forever. They belong to a certain place in time. We will have our memories, yet those thoughts will never be a suitable substitute for the real thing.

There is one joy that remains throughout all our days: the joy we find in Jesus. What he gives us does not fade. The amazing thing about what he offers us is that it also provides a lens through which we see all things. Now we can see the smallest reasons to be grateful. We no longer have a life where we go from one celebration to another with the ordinary in between. All life and time are extraordinary! All gifts, great and small, are precious. This offering seems too good to be true, so what’s the catch? Like all gifts given to us, for the gift to have meaning, we must be willing to receive it. The choice is yours. You can live in the ordinary, or you can revel in the extraordinary, now and forever.

— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS