A heart of gratitude instead of grumbling.

I haven't been writing in a while, but there has been a common theme running through my life lately.  I have seen it in emails from friends, posts on FB, and even sermons. 
We in my family are going through "stuff" I call it with my students.  We all have "Stuff" but it is how we deal with it that makes us stronger or breaks us.  Like many of you who may read this you also have "stuff" that seems so big and hard to handle.  Please know I am not trying to say that mine is any harder to deal with than yours.  I am just saying here I am with it right now.  I feel like we have 2 options one is to have a heart of Grumbling and one is to have a heart of gratitude. 
I don't know about you but for me when things are rough a heart of grumbling is so easy its like its natural probably because it is our sin nature.  We have a way of thinking inward and looking at ourselves that makes us think why me, why this?. 
Actually; Why not me? Why not this? Just because I am a believer in Christ doesn't make me immune to lifes circumstances.  In fact if I am a true believer how I deal with my circumstances should bring God Glory.  My life circumstances are there because this world is sinful and the temporary ruler on this earth is evil.  Being a believer in Christ Jesus means that the earthly ruler, the devil, is against me because he is against God.  The closer I am to Christ the more evil the devil will toss in my path to slow me down from doing the will of God.  With this understanding I need to "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor 10:5). 

Ok so that helps the grumbling to end but how do you turn it into a heart of gratitude?  I was reading a book a while back and this concept jumped off the page at me.  What if tomorrow God only gave us what we thanked Him for today?  Wow, What if???  I know how hard it can be sometimes to pray and it could become monotonous feeling but if you consider that all things come from God (which they do) and God all of a sudden decided hey if you aren't thankful for what I give you then I am going to take it away (which He has every right to) how then would you pray.  How much easier would it be to thank Him the one that provides these things for us?  A Heart and attitude of Gratitude!  We need to keep our eyes and thoughts where they are supposed to be:
Philippians 4:8 ⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
and stop the grumbling.  Lets face it don't you feel better about things when your heart is greatful.  We need to look for the things that are praise worthy and think about those things leave the rough stuff for God to handle because He will if you trust Him.  We need to stop thinking we are doing all these things in our own power when God provides even our next breath.   

WAYS GOOD LEADERS CAN BE GREAT!

In youth ministry as in any Christian ministry we have leaders who are visionaries, ideas people, and workers. All of these are essential to the ministries growth and success. The visionaries see a direction the ministry should go. The ideas people see ways to push the ministry toward the vision. The workers support the ideas and the vision making the ministry a complete team. Sounds simple right? Well not so easy when you factor in the human aspect of each member of the team. The visionary brings an overall purpose to the ministry one that comes from God and His Holy Spirit directed by His word (the Bible). It is important to evaluate often and confirm that the vision is in line with God's Word and His Holy Spirit Because our human minds and our own arrogance can get in the way. Ideas people are very important in Youth ministry with all the busyness and fast pace lives students have we need new ideas all the time to bring freshness to the ministry creating more opportunities to share Christ with the students. This group within ministry gets the most verbal kudos which is good but when adding our humanness we can get the idea that we have some kind of power. This is a weapon the devil uses to split a ministry and cause a poison in leadership. We need to be sure we keep our eyes on Christ giving Glory to Him for the ideas He gives us for His ministry. Notice all "I's" are on "Him". The last part to complete the team are the workers. Those that take the vision and the ideas and complete them. They are the unsung hero's in ministry. Workers work thru the vision and complete the ideas in order for Gods Glory to be revealed. They are the ones that fill in the blanks. The human part that can make this group faulter is by feeling what they do doesn't matter and that anyone can do it. Feeling like they aren't anything special. This is a lie. God created you just the way you are knowing he needed you to follow through with the details of His work. I have had the honor of being part of a ministry team since college and as with our walk with Christ it is a growing experience. We don't always get it right everytime but if we can just open our eyes and focus on Christ and what he wants for our ministry the storms wont look as big and we wont sink while we try to walk where Jesus walked. So ministry leaders out there including the group I love and work with, stay strong and stay focused on Christ so the little things that are bound to come up don't become roadblocks to moving forward in Christs vision for His Ministry.
Great leaders stay focused on Christ!
With Love,
Mamma Bear