{"id":92,"date":"2012-12-22T23:28:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T04:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/?p=92"},"modified":"2019-06-25T15:08:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T19:08:33","slug":"those-who-are-blessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/?p=92","title":{"rendered":"Those who are blessed…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Who doesn’t love Christmas?\u00a0 \u00a0The joyous music, the time with family and friends, decorating the house \u2013 I love it all!\u00a0 And I especially enjoy watching the Christmas movies, where hearts are changed and lives are fuller-\u00a0 Miracle on 34th<\/sup> Street<\/span>, \u00a0It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/span>, Family Man,<\/span> even How The Grinch Stole Christmas<\/span>!\u00a0 But my favorite is A Christmas Carol <\/span>.<\/p>\n

Scrooge is a miserable man.\u00a0 A man who finds no joy in his possessions, or his family, or anything in his life. \u00a0But on Christmas Day, after he has been visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, he is changed.\u00a0 Thrilled with his chance at a new life he has a new-found appreciation of the world.\u00a0 He takes pleasure in a conversation with a young boy.\u00a0 He notices the beautiful day. \u00a0The children\u2019s choir sounds \u201clike angels\u201d to him and he declares it \u201cglorious music\u201d.\u00a0 He looks forward to having dinner with his nephew.\u00a0 He even enjoys making a large donation to charity.<\/p>\n

All of these opportunities for joy had existed in the days, and even the years, before this Christmas day, but he refused to see them.\u00a0 Now, though the world is no different, he sees that his life is filled with people to love and gifts to appreciate.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now, he knows he is blessed and it changes everything.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We do the same today.\u00a0 We have in our minds the way our lives should look, how our prayers should be answered, and we hold the fulfillment of our longings as the only means to our happiness.\u00a0 Our focus is so narrow and our desire for control so great, that we frequently miss\u00a0the joy that could be ours.\u00a0 But if we open our hands and hearts to the unexpected gifts around us, we see we are already blessed.<\/p>\n

And because we know that Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, <\/em>we must confess: We are blessed by the hand of God.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an important side effect to realizing you are blessed by Love:\u00a0 Those who know they are blessed, bless others.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The praises we offer to God fill our hearts with overflowing joy. We leak hope and love.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t change the fact that there are trials or tragedies in this life.\u00a0 But those who know they are blessed bless others by extending the gift that was given to them – Love. \u00a0We bring the Love that was poured on us by offering our support, our presence, and our prayers.\u00a0\u00a0 And it changes the world for the better.<\/p>\n

At the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge has changed so much he is well-known for embodying the spirit of Christmas.<\/p>\n

Those of us who know we are blessed, desire for God to be known as we bless others.<\/p>\n

Scripture References:\u00a0 James 1:17; 1 John 4:8<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who doesn’t love Christmas?\u00a0 \u00a0The joyous music, the time with family and friends, decorating the house \u2013 I love it all!\u00a0 And I especially enjoy watching the Christmas movies, where hearts are changed and lives are fuller-\u00a0 Miracle on 34th Street, \u00a0It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, Family Man, even How The Grinch Stole Christmas!\u00a0 But my … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Ebeneezer-Scrooge.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sCJ7-1u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gingerwarner.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}