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This morning, I went to my computer and logged on to check my email. The very first one I opened was from a dear friend with a message of thanks for our friendship. It made my morning, I’ll tell you that! My heart was immediately drawn out to my friend and I felt connected to her as if I were nine hundred miles away spending Thanksgiving with her.

Gratitude is a powerful emotion that draws us closer not only to one another but also to our Father in heaven. In nothing is the Lord more offended than when we refuse to acknowledge His hand in all things, nor is there anything that draws us closer to Him than deep and heartfelt gratitude. James 4:8 tells us to “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”

If you want to feel grateful, then the first step is remembering. Moses repeatedly advised the children of Israel to remember their days of captivity and their deliverance at the Red Sea. As long as they remembered and were grateful for their deliverance, they remained close to the Lord, protected and comforted. But the moment they began to forget their liberation, they forgot the Lord and made foolish mistakes which led them into dangerous paths of destruction.

Like the children of Israel, we must remember our own personal days of bondage and how the Lord has freed us from them. We must remember our own Red Seas and be grateful. In gratitude, not only is there safety and abundance, but also there is happiness, freedom and peace. You can’t be worried and grateful at the same time. Nor can you be miserable and grateful simultaneously. Gratitude is an amazing emotion that eliminates what one of my favorite religion professors referred to as the “four D’s of the Devil”: Despair, Discouragement, Despondency and Doubt.

Gratitude leads us to reach out to others and share the love we feel in our hearts. In the Levitical law, the Lord laid out a beautiful principle that I believe we’d do well to practice even today. To me it is the most profound expression of our gratitude for it transforms that blessed emotion into action, changing lives for the better.

“But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.” (Deuteronomy 24:18-22)

While the majority of us are not farmers today with gleaners in our fields, the principle of remembering our own bondage and then sharing with others who are going through what we’ve been through is the epitome of living the Golden Rule. Who better to lift and bless those who are suffering, than she who has suffered and intimately knows the same emotions, heartache and pain of the sufferer? Having lived through your own bondage and Red Sea, you can then turn around and help those who must cross the same bridge you have crossed.

One of my favorite poems is entitled The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole. It too suggests that we complete the cycle of gratitude by reaching back and lifting our fellow travelers.

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

''Old Man'', said a fellow pilgrim near,
''You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way.
You've crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build you this bridge at evening tide?''

The builder lifted his old gray head-
''Good friend, in the path I have come'',
he said, ''There followeth after me today,
A youth whose feet must pass this way;
This chasm that has naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be:
He, too, must cross in the twighlight dim -
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.''

As I look back over this year, I am grateful for those who built the bridges that I've crossed. I have seen my own Red Seas part this year, and every one of them has been because the Lord led people into my life who were kind enough to build a bridge for me. I am grateful for these people who reach out and bless others – sometimes without even realizing who will cross the bridge they leave behind. Some of them intentionally, selflessly build bridges while others are like the honey bee who goes about its business doing its work of gathering nectar, never knowing that it is pollinating a landscape and making it possible for others to eat.

I am grateful for those who simply do their best in their own field of endeavor and thus pollinate the world in the process. And I am immensely thankful for those kind-hearted souls who intentionally reach out and leave a legacy behind. This Thanksgiving, let’s think about the impact we make on the world, the bridges we build. Is the world a better place because we we're here? Are we showing the Lord how grateful we are for all He has done for us by reaching out and sharing His love with others?

About Marnie Pehrson
Marnie L. Pehrson is a wife, mother of 6, founder of SheLovesGod.com, and author of both inspirational Christian titles such as You Can't Fly If You'r

The author may be contacted at http://www.MarniePehrson.com webmaster@shelovesgod.com.

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