{"id":1281,"date":"2011-08-18T16:14:18","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2011-08-18T16:14:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:14:18","slug":"thankful-thursday-the-right-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1281","title":{"rendered":"Thankful Thursday: The Right Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father!<\/p>\n<p>You know Father, as I\u2019ve mentioned before I really <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">LOVE Thankful Thursday posts<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 While I try to give thanks each day for the abundance of Blessings You grace me with, having a weekly post that leads me to recollect all the little things that bring a smile to my heart puts me in exactly the right perspective:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Rejoice always,\u00a0pray continually,\u00a0give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God&#8217;s will for you in Christ Jesus. \u2013 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I ran across a <a title=\"Pastor Steven Furtick - Thank You, and Please\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stevenfurtick.com\/spiritual-growth\/thank-you-and-please\/\" target=\"_blank\">blog posting today at stevenfurtick.com<\/a> that said it beautifully:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201cWith God, \u2018thank you\u2019 should always come before \u2018please.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><em> The first thing that needs to come out of my mouth in prayer and worship needs to be praise for who God is and what He has done. Not just instructions for what I want or even need Him to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So true.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore Father, with that perspective firmly embedded in my heart, this week I\u2019ve been thankful for:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>196. A silly, giggly, tasty dinner with Shannon and the kids at a new Mexican Restaurant.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>197. Getting some \u201cone-on-one\u201d time with Aidan while Jonathan was away at <a title=\"Kay's Kamp - Oncology Camp for Kids\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kayskamp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kay\u2019s Kamp<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>198. For a sweet Bloggy Friend who reminded me to <a title=\"Healthy Spirituality: Thanking God for Weeds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.healthyspirituality.org\/2011\/08\/thanking-god-for-weeds.html\" target=\"_blank\">look at flowering weeds as flowers, and not weeds<\/a> (Thank you Jean!).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>199. Cool, clear mornings which let me leave my windows down in the truck on the way to work.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>200. A fun night out with my lovely Wife last Friday night.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>201. Getting the opportunity to attend <a title=\"The Power of a Dream\" href=\"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1250\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cMedia Day\u201d at Kay\u2019s Kamp<\/a>, and seeing the Blessed work they do for the children.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>202. <a title=\"The Baptism of Kim Miller\" href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/27694618\" target=\"_blank\">Inspiring testimonies from courageous people<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>203. Getting well over 50,000 miles on my truck tires before having to replace them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>204. Free lifetime map and software updates available for my GPS.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>205. Finding new school uniform clothing for the boys at Goodwill dirt cheap.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>206. Jonathan having another wonderful week away at <a title=\"Kay's Kamp - Oncology Camp for Kids\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kayskamp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kay\u2019s Kamp<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>207. Having inexpensive generic versions available for the medications we take.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>208. Tootsie Fruit Rolls.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>209. My portable digital voice recorder that allows me to note things I\u2019m thankful for at the time they come to me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>210. Waking up next to the lady I love each and every day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Heavenly Father, once again I thank You for all the Blessings You grace our lives with each day; both those that shine brilliantly with Your Light, and those that Bless us quietly, without fanfare.\u00a0 I pray that You will continue to open my eyes wider to Your gifts, that I may appreciate them to the full.<\/p>\n<p>In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray,<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n<p>~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father! You know Father, as I\u2019ve mentioned before I really LOVE Thankful Thursday posts.\u00a0 While I try to give thanks each day for the abundance of Blessings You grace me with, having a weekly post that leads me to recollect all the little things that bring a smile to my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,1754,181,921,1731,851,168,256,419,358,182,286,132,321,43,1761,915,607,196,173,628,228,1760,208,276,966,59,248,444,89,471,951,140,593,916,271,269,116,374,190,1732,104,133,1665,1728,141,506,845,1525,123,1696,776,587,601,217,205,1756,69,727,174,1759,227,73,95,1755,178,114,40,1034,1646,1753,221,1757,1758,71,481,157,504,378,379,138,604],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-abundance","tag-abundance-of-blessings","tag-aidan","tag-appreciate","tag-baptism","tag-beautiful","tag-bless","tag-blessed","tag-blessing","tag-blog","tag-boys","tag-child","tag-children","tag-christ","tag-courage","tag-courageous-people","tag-dear-lord","tag-dream","tag-eyes","tag-father","tag-friday","tag-friend","tag-generic-versions","tag-gift","tag-gifts","tag-god","tag-grace","tag-growth","tag-happy","tag-health","tag-healthy","tag-healthy-spirituality","tag-heart","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-inspiring","tag-jesus","tag-jonathan","tag-kays-kamp","tag-kids","tag-kim-miller","tag-light","tag-love","tag-media-day","tag-mexican-restaurant","tag-mind","tag-morning","tag-need","tag-niv","tag-oncology","tag-oncology-camp","tag-plea","tag-power","tag-praise","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-prayer-and-worship","tag-quiet","tag-rest","tag-school","tag-school-uniform","tag-shannon","tag-smile","tag-spirit","tag-stevenfurtick-com","tag-sweet","tag-thank-you","tag-thankful","tag-thankful-thursday","tag-thanking-god","tag-the-right-perspective","tag-thessalonians","tag-truck-tires","tag-uniform-clothing","tag-voice","tag-week","tag-wife","tag-will","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-work","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Tire-Tread-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-kF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}