Be Thankful For What You Have
Sometimes I feel that the people who complain the most are people who are not thankful for what they have. In this modern world where we have so much convenience at our fingertips, we fall victim to this attitude. I guess I'm one of them and so are millions of people in this world.
The happiest people I noticed are people who are grateful for the blessings in their life. Over the years I have met many different kinds of people. But you can generally categorize them into two categories. The first are people who complain always, the second are those who are always grateful.
The happiest people I noticed are people who are grateful for the blessings in their life. Over the years I have met many different kinds of people. But you can generally categorize them into two categories. The first are people who complain always, the second are those who are always grateful.
To be able to enjoy a simple cup of coffee is a blessing : )
I like to talk to people who have a thankful and grateful outlook in life. Somehow they have a very different perspective in life. They will also endure hardship and difficult situations with you. If you put me with someone who always complain about the little things in life, I just can't stand being around them.
I remember in the bible somewhere it says "Godliness with contentment is great gain". Looked it up and notice it is from 1 Timothy 6:6. I'm not super religious but as I grew older the stuff in the best selling book in history makes more and more sense to me.
Scrolling through Facebook I notice some posts my friends put on their wall. Titles like "If you have these, you are better off than many others...." something like this. And I begin to realize that yes indeed I live much better than so many people in this world. So, I thought I would share my 2 sense worth with all of you. If you have all these....be grateful. You live much better than so many people in this world.
I remember in the bible somewhere it says "Godliness with contentment is great gain". Looked it up and notice it is from 1 Timothy 6:6. I'm not super religious but as I grew older the stuff in the best selling book in history makes more and more sense to me.
Scrolling through Facebook I notice some posts my friends put on their wall. Titles like "If you have these, you are better off than many others...." something like this. And I begin to realize that yes indeed I live much better than so many people in this world. So, I thought I would share my 2 sense worth with all of you. If you have all these....be grateful. You live much better than so many people in this world.
1. You get to wake up everyday
This is something that we take for granted.
You do not really appreciate all this until you have been in a hospital a lot. I remember years ago when my dad was sick, I used to visit him in the hospital a lot. He was suffering from cancer and he passed away in 2002. I remember him getting weaker and weaker everyday until one day he could not get out of bed.
Friends, we all to often take good health for granted. To be able to get up, have a job, come back home, enjoy a nice dinner with family and get to bed tired and sleep and able to wake up the next day is one of the greatest blessings that we all can have.
You do not really appreciate all this until you have been in a hospital a lot. I remember years ago when my dad was sick, I used to visit him in the hospital a lot. He was suffering from cancer and he passed away in 2002. I remember him getting weaker and weaker everyday until one day he could not get out of bed.
Friends, we all to often take good health for granted. To be able to get up, have a job, come back home, enjoy a nice dinner with family and get to bed tired and sleep and able to wake up the next day is one of the greatest blessings that we all can have.
2. You have good vision, good hearing and able to move around yourself
My mom is getting old.
With age, there comes lots of pain and weaknesses. Our bodies age and like an old car we need to take care of it very well if it is to serve us for a long time. You can replace a car whenever you want and just throw it away if you don't want it anymore. But with our bodies, we just can't do that. Medical technologies has enabled us to replace a heart and many other organs but it has not advanced to a stage where we can replace anything that we want. Perhaps not ever.
Recently, my mum had thyroid again. She had it years ago and now it came back. But this time the thyroid started to affect her eyes. For those of you who know about thyroid, you will learn that it does affect eyes. Your eyes can have double vision because they are not aligned. I do not really understand how it feels but since I wear glasses when I tilt my glasses, one eye's vision is not at the same level as the other. I guess that must have been what my mum experienced this past few months.
It's really sad to see my mom getting old. She has to go see the doctor in KL every one or two weeks and I send her down KL quite often. It got really bad till her thyroid glands were so big. It looked scary and I'm extremely worried bout her. After seeing the doctor in Gleneagles, the doctor say that she has to reduce her intake of previous medication. She also has high blood pressure and need to eat pills for high blood pressure . After monitoring her for a few weeks and following the doctor's advice, she seem to get better.
Her thyroid glands are much smaller and not visible anymore and her vision is getting better. I thank God for that. Please continue to pray for her.
Another person who is getting old and very dear to me is Mr Lim. Although he is not my uncle or my relative, over the years that I have known him, our bond has grown till he is like a second grandfather to me. Mr Lim has seen Grace grew up since a little girl to a high school girl and now a married woman. We do not see him often but in my heart and my wife's heart he is always dear to us. He has a weak heart and has been going into and out of the hospital many times this year. He recently had a heart pacer installed.
When I look at the people around me, I begin to be thankful for the blessings I enjoy in my life. If you can see well, listen well, move around freely and do the things you like, don't take it for granted. The sad thing with us it this, we only will treasure what we have only when we don't have it anymore.
Don't let that be you. Be thankful to God everyday.
With age, there comes lots of pain and weaknesses. Our bodies age and like an old car we need to take care of it very well if it is to serve us for a long time. You can replace a car whenever you want and just throw it away if you don't want it anymore. But with our bodies, we just can't do that. Medical technologies has enabled us to replace a heart and many other organs but it has not advanced to a stage where we can replace anything that we want. Perhaps not ever.
Recently, my mum had thyroid again. She had it years ago and now it came back. But this time the thyroid started to affect her eyes. For those of you who know about thyroid, you will learn that it does affect eyes. Your eyes can have double vision because they are not aligned. I do not really understand how it feels but since I wear glasses when I tilt my glasses, one eye's vision is not at the same level as the other. I guess that must have been what my mum experienced this past few months.
It's really sad to see my mom getting old. She has to go see the doctor in KL every one or two weeks and I send her down KL quite often. It got really bad till her thyroid glands were so big. It looked scary and I'm extremely worried bout her. After seeing the doctor in Gleneagles, the doctor say that she has to reduce her intake of previous medication. She also has high blood pressure and need to eat pills for high blood pressure . After monitoring her for a few weeks and following the doctor's advice, she seem to get better.
Her thyroid glands are much smaller and not visible anymore and her vision is getting better. I thank God for that. Please continue to pray for her.
Another person who is getting old and very dear to me is Mr Lim. Although he is not my uncle or my relative, over the years that I have known him, our bond has grown till he is like a second grandfather to me. Mr Lim has seen Grace grew up since a little girl to a high school girl and now a married woman. We do not see him often but in my heart and my wife's heart he is always dear to us. He has a weak heart and has been going into and out of the hospital many times this year. He recently had a heart pacer installed.
When I look at the people around me, I begin to be thankful for the blessings I enjoy in my life. If you can see well, listen well, move around freely and do the things you like, don't take it for granted. The sad thing with us it this, we only will treasure what we have only when we don't have it anymore.
Don't let that be you. Be thankful to God everyday.
3. You have a roof over your head
According to HomelessWorldCup's page:
- 100 million people are homeless worldwide
- 1.6 Billion people lack adequate housing
4. You have enough to eat
If you had a Kellog's corn flakes for breakfast, spaghetti bolognese for lunch and curry mee for dinner consider yourself blesses. That's because
- 795 Million people in the world do not have enough food to live and active lifestyle.
5. If you own a car you are the 10% of people in this world who has a car
I did a search on the percentage of people who own cars in this world. An answer is found at Answer.com. The answer there is about 9%. But then it was based on outdated data. We do not have an accurate data but in most developed countries the percentage of people who own a car is very high. In the US there are reports of about 90% of the population who own at least one car. In Malaysia, by the looks of the traffic jam in Bentong and KL, is seems that every household has a second or third car. Lol.
But anyway, we forget that there are lots of countries in the world whose majority of the population does not have a car. So, let's just put a simple 10% for our consideration here. With the growth in economic prosperity in the world especially in China, I believe perhaps the percentage may be higher. But I think we can put a maximum of 20% of the people in this world has a car.
Anyway, just for simplicity, we put it at 10%.
So, if you own a car, you are the 1 out of 10 people in this world who has a car! That in itself is an achievement.
But anyway, we forget that there are lots of countries in the world whose majority of the population does not have a car. So, let's just put a simple 10% for our consideration here. With the growth in economic prosperity in the world especially in China, I believe perhaps the percentage may be higher. But I think we can put a maximum of 20% of the people in this world has a car.
Anyway, just for simplicity, we put it at 10%.
So, if you own a car, you are the 1 out of 10 people in this world who has a car! That in itself is an achievement.
Be thankful always
In light of the facts above, I think I'm so blessed. This article that I wrote is a reminder to myself as well as anyone who happen to drop by to be grateful for every blessing in life. If you are always complaining and think life is bad for you, think of the many billions of people in the world who have a harsher life than you. If they could exchange their life with you for one day, they would be so grateful. And so should you.