“The Word for You Today” is a spiritual booklet that I read daily. I think the following message for Oct. 17 is appropriate for anyone:

DEVELOP A GRATEFUL HEART

A grateful heart sees each day as a gift. It’s like a magnet sweeping over your day, collecting reasons to be grateful.

It thanks God for the miracle of muscles that enable your eyes to read these words and your brain to process them. It thanks God for lungs that can inhale and exhale eleven thousand liters of air every day.

It thanks God for a heart that will beat about three billion times in your lifetime, and for a brain that’s a veritable electric generator and supercomputer of power.

It thanks God for jam on your toast and milk on your cereal.

For the blanket that warms you and the joke that delights you. For the thousands of planes that didn’t crash today.

For the men who didn’t cheat on their wives, and the wives who didn’t turn on their men.  And the kids who in spite of unspeakable pressure to dishonor their parents, decided not to do so.

Rejoicing over the good stuff is what gets you through the hard stuff. “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22) Gratitude is an attitude you choose, not a reaction to your circumstances.

“On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God … broke it.” (I Corinthians 11:23-24) Note, the words betrayed and thanks are in the same sentence, and in the same heart.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave thanks.

And you can do that when you know God is in control, directing your steps and working everything out for your good.

If you have any questions or comments, please write Harold Keller at Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084, call 985-542-8477 or email hkeller@comcast.net.