Mom Heart Moments #27

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

THANKFULNESS IS SOMETHING that needs to be expressed both vertically and horizontally if we are to build relationships! Over the years, we have noticed it is the people who take the time to thank us, writing us thank-you notes and emailing lifegiving words, who become closest to our hearts because they have learned to be initiators. Leaving thank-you notes on beds when we travel, sending affirming texts to one another’s phones, dropping an encouraging note in the mail —these are things easily added even to busy lives.

We all must tightly hold on to the ideal of community and fight for it, as it is in the community of loving believers where the reality of God is most felt. I have been so blessed to have a couple of friends who love me and reach out to me because they know I need to be cared for, just as they do.

My children didn’t have lots of other people in their lives when they were younger, so I didn’t have much competition! We loved and had fun with each other out of necessity, and the result is that we are friends and love and enjoy each other not because we have to, but because we truly enjoy each other and are interested in each other’s lives. Even after so many years of fussing and tussling —they ended up in love.

Thanksgiving, joy, and strong relationships are interconnected! All of them can grow in our lives if we put some effort in.

We can see in today’s verse that before we overflow with gratitude, we must be rooted and built up and established in faith! Have you received Christ this way? He longs to have a relationship with you.