The benefits of being thankful

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Good morning, everybody. I'm glad that you've chose to join
me for the special message on hearing begins called the
Benefits being Thankful. I'm here today with Stephanie Butler. Say
Hi Stephanie.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hi, everybody, Happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Happy Thanksgiving. We're sure glad that you have chose to
join us for Thanksgiving. Stephanie, do you have your Christmas
tree up already?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
No?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
No, but.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
I won't tell you whose house I was at yesterday,
But they had their tree up already and it's not
even Thanksgiving. I guess it's Christmas coming. Ear. I like
to drive through the neighborhood sometimes and look at all
the lights and look at people's trees in their window.
I like doing that. I like going through the neighborhoods,
especially if it's been warm out and we're not in

(01:06):
that cold, snowy season yet, although it's been cold already.
So we're going to talk about being thankful and the
benefits of being thankful. But you know, we have a
lot in America. We just have so much bounty. We
have so much And for me, on Thanksgiving we would
get together with family and when we did, man, we
had more food. Oh my goodness. You know, if you're

(01:29):
trying to lose weight, Thanksgiving is not a good time
to do that. But we would come in and the
family and we'd have a it looked like a potluck meal,
looked like enough food for an army. We'd have a
turkey and chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. And now
I got you all hungry again, and ah, my goodness.
And so but it really was a time for family

(01:49):
and friends. And once again we hit on that family
and friends things, because well, maybe you're not feeling too
thankful this season. Maybe that's a real struggle. So but
before we get into that, but I just used to
really love Thanksgiving for that reason. And then here comes
Black Friday, you know, and you know what, I've gotten

(02:11):
up early in the morning to go out and look
for things. Kind I don't know. I like doing that.
I go get myself. It's an Easter egg hunt, you know,
it's an adventure.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
And it's like that, Yeah, guys go hunting, We go
hunting for shop stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh yeah, I don't. I don't do any of that hunting.
I go looking for anything I might be able. I
don't know how easter eggs got in there, but it's
the hunt. Oh okay, I didn't know how Easter made
it into the adventure. It is the adventure. So what
was Thanksgiving like for you, Stephanie.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Oh? We had the whole family over, my mom, my
mom's dad and mom and all my aunts and uncles.
So I loved it because it was a great time
of fellowship. That was probably my favorite part. You got
all the hugs and all the laughs and all the jokes,
and everybody sat around and watch the Thanksgiving parade and
it was turkey tired. You know how you get tired
have to eat all that turkey trip the fin Yes. Yes,

(03:03):
And we'd eat real early in the afternoon because we
wanted to be able to go back for seconds at
four or five o'clock and then watch another show or
a movie together. I love it. It was a wonderful,
full day of fellowship. So you get to catch up
with everybody when you haven't seen them all year. It's
probably one of my favorite times of year.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah. I used to like to watch Lions football too,
and their turkeys were kind of trains had more than
two legs. I don't know how I did that, but
that would be a good way, you eat a lot
of turkey and watch Lions football and fall straight to see. Yes,
now they're doing.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
You're coming back.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Come on Lions and give us a roar lion. That's right. Anyways,
just Thanksgiving, it's just a great time to reflect. But
the benefits of being thankful, I want to say this
is that you think about your life. There's always something
to be thankful for.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Maybe it's the air you breathe in your lungs, or
maybe it's just that you got up to face one
more day, or maybe that's the hardest thing for you.
But we all, we all have something to be thankful.
I remember standing in Lecarpio in Costa Rica and the
garbage zump, a community built on a landfill where they're
where they'll have these little ten houses and there'll be

(04:16):
eight people living in a room, living on practically nothing.
I mean, it's just deplorable way to live. And then
we kin would come home to America and I'd have
a hard time because wow, we have everything and where
they have nothing. And so I want to be really
thankful on Thanksgiving, but I also want us to remember

(04:38):
those that maybe they don't have much, and maybe we
can share with people that are in need of this
Thanksgiving season. So maybe share a turkey. Maybe buy somebody
a turkey, think about that, or buy somebody. I'm a
friend of mine own right, a friend of mine owns
a he has a catering businesses, and he's giving all

(05:04):
of our our volunteers a turkey. No, he's given them
all a ham and then he gave away another twenty
five hams to a food bank. So I think that's
really great. Maybe there's someone you know that you can
share with. So the benefits of being thankful. The Bible
says that first Thessalonians five eighteen, give thanks in all circumstances,

(05:26):
for this is God's will concerning you in Christ Jesus, Amen.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
And I love how it says give thanks in all circumstances.
That doesn't even give thanks for all circumstances. But there
is something to be thankful for in it. Maybe you
were protected, maybe you were provided for it. Maybe you
know your life was spared. Whatever that is, right, there's
a way to give. There's something we can be thankful
for in the situation.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, yeah, because you know, I get up in the
morning and I think when we praise the lorder we
thank him, maybe when we don't feel like it. The
point number one is it gratitude aligns us with God's will,
and so in daily life, when we're thankful, when we
live in gratitude, we align our hearts with God's purposes,

(06:11):
seeing life through a lens of faith rather than fear.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well that's really good, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, that is really good. A natural pat friend of
mine so the healthiest person she ever met in her
entire life. When she did the metabolic age of this priest,
he said, I thank God for every part of my
body every day. I thank him for my brain, I
thank him for my kidneys, I thank him for my lungs.
And he was, she said, in perfect health. His metabolic
age was around thirty three years old. That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Thankfulness is powerful.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It is. It's a lot think about. The Bible says
the power of life and death is in the time.
That's where you can eat the fruit there up, So
we know, we know our words have power, and we
know where we go where our words go. So point
number two is thankfulness transforms our perspective. You want to read,
what's that.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Stephanie Sure So that's Philippians four six and seven. Do
not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by
prayer and petition with thanksgiving, presents your requests to God,
and the peace which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
That's a good scripture. Read the Daily Impact.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
It says that gratitude shifts our focus from what we
lack to what we have. It reduces our anxiety, and
it increases our peace in our everyday lives. So reminder
that scripture that says, think on those things that are knowable,
that are praiseworthy, that are true right that we're encouraged
to do that. I think it's Philippians as well. And
when we stay focused on the things we can be

(07:45):
thankful for, and we use our words in our mouth
to express that thankfulness literally because life and death are
in the power of our tongue. It brings a physical
change in your body, It brings circumstantial change in your
relationships and your situations. But then it also decreases your
anxiety because you're thinking on the things that you appreciate,
that you're grateful for, so it increases your joy.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
I also think it shifts are thinking from what we
don't have to absolute what he has.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
The source.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Come on, God says I will supply all your needs
according to His riches and glory. So I think that
it shifts our focused from what we don't have to
what he has. In faith, you got to remember us
calling the things that are not as though they already are.
And maybe you haven't seen the breakthrough that you've honored
or the job that you're trying to get her. Maybe

(08:34):
you are in this Thanksgiving season feeling it all down
because you didn't get what you thought you'd have at
this point in your life. Well, keep believing, keep praying,
keep proclaiming, because God wants to bless your life. You
want to read a point three Gratitude cultivates.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Contentment and joy. Yeah, so gratitude does cultivate contentment and joy.
And we were just talking about that. So we've got
I think the NIV version here for Timothy sixty six.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. But I listen
to the amplified. But godliness actually is a source of
great gain when accompanied by contentment. That contentment, which comes

(09:16):
from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency
of God. So it's exactly what Pastor Gaal was just
talking about. It puts our eyes back on God. He's
our source. He's the source of all good. God is love.
We know that when we keep our eyes on the
source and the reality of God himself, the fact that
He is love and all the good things He's already
given us, it does affect our lives in a positive way.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, you know, in the Bible says the joy of
the Lord is your strength. And so when we're thankful
and we praise God and we're thankful, you kind of
put your foot on the head of the enemy because
he wants you rolling in the negative. He wants you
focusing on what you don't have, not on what God
has for you. Point number four, thank you. Fullness strengthens

(10:01):
our relationships. It says in Classes three point fifteen, Let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful.
So when we're thankful, then that allows a peace of
God to be released and rule in our hearts. And
a thankful heart improves our relationships by fostering kindness, reducing conflict,

(10:23):
encouraging a spirit of appreciation toward others. And how many
of you know if you've ever been around someone who's
really bitter and all they can talk about is what
they don't have and how bad God treats it, you know,
all that kind of stuff. So being thankful strengthens the
relationships we have for one another. But how about being

(10:44):
thankful for the relationships we have?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah? Well, and even if it's a difficult relationship, what
are some things you can be thankful for? What are
some things you can focus on about that individual that
are noble and true in praise with you? Like, I
know some persnickity people, but they're very organized. They keep
their house very clean. They help me keep things in
order when I might be a little more scatter brained. Right,
So I can thank God for that about them because

(11:08):
they keep me on track.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
So, no matter what relation do you have or what
the personality of the individual is, there's something that you
can celebrate in that individual and who it is God
made them to be and how they are a benefit
or blessing to your life.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Well, I'm thinking of a song. I know I'm not
going to sing it, but it goes like this, The
joy of the Lord is your strength. Maybe I should
sing it, The Joy of the Lord is your strength.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Ha ha.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
You make yourself laugh the joy of the Lord, it
is your strength. Ha. Just that's enough to make you laugh.
You know. The Bible says a merry heart doth good like.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
So maybe I knew a guy that was all depressed.
I heard about this testimony, and his body was racked
with pain. So three four hours a day he would
do nothing but watch the Three Stooges because all I
did was make him laugh and laugh and laugh and
laugh and laugh. And one day, the pain that was
racked in his body, that pain, the experience, disappeared out

(12:11):
of his body and never came back. So there's power
and joy. And by the way, if you know someone
that brings you great joy, maybe you can invite them
out for coffee or have lunch with them, or do
something with them. I mean, it's a great idea. On Thanksgiving,
you don't have to be Thanksgiving Day, but maybe the
day before, the day after, or two days before, you

(12:33):
invite a friend out for coffee because there he encourage you.
And I think, I think we need it so much.
We don't realize how much we need encouragement and thankfulness
in our life. Is something's really important for our health
and for our mental wellbeing. I really believe that that
if you can't be thankful, I believe that thankfulness can

(12:55):
break depression absolutely. Thankfulness can break anxiety. Not that your
circumstances changed, but your focus changes absolutely from what you
don't have back onto what God has done for you,
and all of a sudden, maybe your circumstance doesn't seem
as bad as you thought it was.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
I think thankfulness is a form of spiritual warfare as well,
because you very had one of those days where it's
like you spill the coffee, you shut your scarf from
the door, you get mud on your dress. You're like, Lord,
But if you start laughing at those things like not today, Satan,
it's like everything kind of comes back together and He's like,
can't leave this chick Alon. We're just making her happy

(13:36):
and happier. You know, there's no way to bring them
down out of the presence of the Lord. So sometimes
it's just like not taking yourself so seriously. It's like, well,
here we are, and I asked a friend of mine
said to me one time, They're like, Stephanie, sometimes we
just need to know that you're a human. Oh, I'm like, oh, honey,
I'm human.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
You know amen, We know that I'm human, right, But
it's like we think we like having it all pull
together and when everything goes X, y z exactly in
order in a certain kind of way.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
But what makes life funny, what makes life fun, what
makes life beautiful is the embracing of the realities when
it doesn't go that way. That's what creates coin O'Neal
or fellowship among us. Oh do you remember that time
when we were at the camp site and the dog
ate the steak, and the tent caught on fire and
the wind blew everything into the pond, and how crazy

(14:26):
it was. Now years later we laugh about all that stuff,
But why not laugh when it's happening, Like, seriously, could
anything else go wrong? It's comical how much sometimes the
enemy tries to steal our joy. But when we relax,
when we remember our source, when we can laugh in
the face of those kinds of circumstances, it makes life
so much more enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know a guy this morning, and he may have
lost his joy. This morning. He was driving into his truck.
I noticed there was a deer laying in the middle
of the road, moving and I come up and this
guy had hit the deer. There was deer all over.
But it's like I've hit too. I think I've hit three.
I don't even hunt deer. I've got more deer with
my vehicle than I never did hunt before.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
The d thing.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Did you put it on the car? That's what I
want to know. Did you get some venison? No, you
can get that. I hit one deer at seventy five
miles an hour on M six. He jumped in front
of me and went underneath his belly and sent him
up in the air, and he had a big rack on.
And a guy behind me said he saw that flying
deer and he goes, oh, that can't begun. The deer

(15:27):
landed on the road and he ran over its big
rack and the next guy ran over. There was nothing
left of that deer to my car. The hood was
up for the car. I'm like, oh my gosh, and
it's like close to midnight. I called my friend Dean, Dean,
I need your help. He come and picked me off
the side of the road and dropped me to his house.
I was thankful for my brother, Dean. Dean vander Maper listening,

(15:49):
thank you and grand Rampa, my son.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
One's hitted Joe out of a crick over a bridge
onto at the front of his car. I said, Janney,
you gotta be kidding me, Like, who does that happen to?
We laughed and laughed at though one here we are.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well, you know we're not gonna sing Grandma got ran
over by the reindeer. Okay, but there's so many things
we could be thankful for. I know we're kind of
goofy at times, but you know, sometimes we get so
serious we forget to laugh. These things aren't funny when
they happen. No, I'm like, oh, man, a brand new car,

(16:21):
eight thousand dollars in damage. As they fixed it. At
least the airbags didn't go off. I remember when he
landed in front of the car. Oh no, And my
dad always said, don't try to avoid him, just right,
just kept the wheels straight. I put gass slightly and
he went airborne. I don't think his name was Rudeolph either.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well, this is another tip too. Okay, So if you're
in a really bad situation and something has happened like that,
the scripture says the enemy has to give back seven
times everything he stole from you. So you just start thinking, God,
thank you Lord that the enemy has to give back
seven times. Go ahead and let him have that one
little thing, and then get your seven times. Do your
figure that out and thank God for it, and just
wait and watch God we'll provide. He's so so good.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Well, I think we need to pray for some people.
It's Thanksgiving time, and especially for those that are Maybe
you're out there and you feel like you're all alone.
The Lord wants you to know you're not all alone.
He's with you, he loves you, You're important, he cares
for you. Those are important messages to hear on Thanksgiving,
especially maybe something bad happened on Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving doesn't

(17:30):
bring back good memories. Or maybe you even I don't
know why this is coming to me, but maybe you
went through a divorce on Thanksgiving or whatever it is
that's stealing your joy. You know what I want to say,
take your joy back, take it back. I've had people
say I've heard people say, well, you're ruin my whole day.
I'm like, I'm not going to let anyone ruin the

(17:51):
whole day. I'm not going to Jesus said, take everythough captive. Yeah,
he said that, But that's all right. Jesus said my piece.
I give you my piece. I live with you, not
like the world gives. So in other words, no one
can take God's peace from you unless you allow it.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
And so it takes practice.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
It does take your peace back. A part of taking
your peace back and getting your focus back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, if you want to be mad about something, be
mad about your mind going down a path that's going
to ruin your whole day, and say I refuse to
let this day be room. You put on your favorite song,
you worship the Lord, You sing, you dance, you laugh. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
My favorite movie is Red Rider Bbcgumma. It's funny movie.
And the wife has got the turkey all out on
the table, but the bumpuses dogs get in the house
and get the turkey and eat the turkey and the
dad is so upset. But then they go out for Chinese.
Then that that was such a fun movie because they

(18:56):
serve them duck with a head on. The wife is screaming,
but they go out and they make lemonade out of lemons.
They have a Chinese meal. You know, we did that
for a while as a young family. I said my wife,
why cook a Christmas meal? When we got a Chinese
buffet down the road, We'll go buffet our bodies. We'll

(19:17):
go have some Chinese. And we did that for a
number of years. We didn't fix a big Christmas meal.
We went out to eat. We'd open gifts, open presents,
have some snacks, go out to eat. And so we
just want to pray for you though, during the Thanksgiving season,
that you would know that you're important, that God loves you. You
want to lift up a prayer Sephany.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, Father, I just thank you for this person that's listening.
I asked that you a blessed them, that you would
have baptized them afresh with the spirit of joy in
your presence, that you would grant them grace to laugh
and laugh and laugh again, to remember the good times,
to be able to change their prospective. Father, show them
the humor in what happened, and the grace that you

(19:58):
gave them to overcome, and the way that you provided
for them, so that they may have joy in abundance
and overflowing in this season this year.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
In Jesus' name, Lord, I just pray that during the
Thanksgiving season, you would help people to find ways to
be thankful, even if it's in the very littlest thing.
So Lord, help them to put their focus back on you.
But I pray also for an invasion of your presence.
Even as I'm praying, I pray that wherever the people

(20:28):
are at, where they're listening to this, I pray right
now in the name of Jesus, that where they're at
would be invaded with your presence, that your angels would
go forth and minister to people, minister to people that
are sick. Father, we pray for healing for those that
are sick. In the name of Jesus. We just lift
up your name. Lord, We lift up all those that
are listening, that they would come to know You, that

(20:52):
they would get their peace back in and be thankful
on Thanksgiving in Jesus' name. Now I like to hear
from you. My email is Share It Healing Begins Radio
dot com. Share a Healing Begins Radio dot com. We'd
love to hear how you like the program, other topics
you'd like, but also we have some resources that I

(21:14):
want you to know about. One is the Spiritual Care
Consultants podcast channel called Healing Begins. Spiritual Care you can
find it on Amazon, Google, Spotify. We have one hundred
and sixty podcasts and more on all different subjects and
not on politics, not on religion, but on faith, on healing,

(21:35):
and on encouragement. And we know a lot of people
need that. And also I have books on Amazon. So
if you go to Amazon dot com and you put
in my name Gail g A L E. Kroc k
R A g T. I have six books that could
be very encouraging for you, take a look at what
I have and purchase one of them to give to

(21:56):
a friend or just to encourage your hearts. So Christmas,
you have a book style too, right, Yeah, not two.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Books the same thing. Both of mine are on Amazon.
Magnanimous Love. The Keys to Transforming the City is the
first one that's primarily for Christian leaders or individuals looking
to impact their particular community. And then rest is war.
So it's Stephanie Butler s T E. P h A
n I E. Butler on Amazon dot com.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
All Right, may the Lord bless you, May he keep you,
May He cause his face to shine upon you and
be gracious to you. And may you, during this Thanksgiving
season find different ways to be thankful for and may
your Thanksgiving table be filled. Yes, not with turkey, but
with the peace of heaven.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
May God richly bless you.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
From Gail and Stephanie have a great Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

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