Today is Friday, November 23rd, and most people in the United States are in the midst of celebrating the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Although the traditional "feast" has become the primary focus of this holiday, the real reason for Thanksgiving is to show gratitude for the things that we have in our lives.
Given the amazing (unlimited?) ability of gratitude to bring positive changes into our lives, having a holiday dedicated to that one concept is certainly a wonderful thing, and many bloggers and other writers have already written about gratitude and how it fits into our lives.
Personally, I have so many things to be grateful for that I could write an entire book about it, rather than just a blog post. However, spending quality time with friends and family is one of the biggest things that I am grateful for on a daily basis, not just on the holidays, and it was during one of those times when I had the chance to watch the movie 'Evan Almighty' with Morgan Freeman, Steve Carell, and Lauren Graham.
It was a very entertaining movie, time well spent, and family-friendly as well. However, it wasn't the entertainment value that inspired this post, but rather an important message that was delivered by God, played in the movie by Morgan Freeman.
There is one point in the movie when Evan has been deserted by his wife and kids because they basically think that he has gone off the deep end. His wife is sitting in a restaurant wondering what went wrong, and God comes to visit her in the guise of a waiter at the restaurant.
She doesn't know that the "waiter" is God, of course, and when she questions whether or not blindly following God's wisdom is the right thing to do, Morgan Freeman says the following:
If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience, or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?
If he prays for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him the opportunity to be courageous?
If someone prays for their family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
Life is so very much like the type of situations described in that quote from the movie, yet people tend to waltz right past their personal growth opportunities without even recognizing them for what they are.
In today's world we have become so accustomed to there being some "solution" to any problem or issue that comes into our lives, and we often forget the fact that the path to happiness and success doesn't come in a pill, a bottle, a book, or a seminar. We have to do the work.
God, or the Universe, or Divine Spirit, or whatever you want to call it - those powers just provide us the opportunities to work towards attaining our deepest desires. Then, when we've done "the work" and we have gotten what we wanted, the prize is that much sweeter because we see that it has real value.
We see that it was worth working for.
We see that it's worth keeping.
We see that it's worth protecting.
We see that the prize is not only incredibly valuable, but more importantly, that we are incredibly worthy of having it. After all, we asked for it - if we hadn't, it wouldn't have been delivered.
So, as today goes by, and tomorrow, next week, next month, etc., ask yourself just what it is that you are asking for, because no matter what it is that you ask for, your Higher Power will provide you with the opportunity to get your hands on it.
Make sure you're on the look out for it.
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