A light breeze on a single-digit morning makes for a cold wake up. The cat appreciated my effort to feed her in the cold though, so all is good. We may at times fear that any gratitude or appreciation in this world takes away from our treasure in Heaven. Our Lord told us not to do our good deeds to be seen by men. If we do good only for this reason, then we do indeed have our reward only here on earth. Those people do make sure that their efforts are seen and noticed by as many as possible. However, gratitude from the receiver and appreciation when word gets out about our good deeds, and it will sometimes, does not take away from the original good done in God's name. In fact, we are to let our light shine before men so that our Heavenly Father is glorified.
So...how does one not let the left hand know what the right hand is up to, and then hold up that light to shine at the same time? I know, three hands! No that's not it. We let the recipient of the good deeds shine a light on them while we run go hide. Hmm, I don't know there, seems like that might be that false humility hiding our light. Maybe, we accept the praise because we gave for the right reasons, did not do it for the wrong one, and now we have the chance to glorify God. Yes, that sounds better. Not easy, but better.
Accepting is not easy. We have trouble accepting charity. I can tell you from valuable experience that is not easy, but a season may come when it is necessary. We have trouble accepting a little recognition, even when we have a secret desire for it. We experience difficulty in accepting gratitude. Some of us may find it difficult to accept love from another in the romantic way (That may be just a certain level of stupidity too.). But,do we not have one thing that must be accepted above all others and cannot be earned by us in any way? Yes, salvation. I think we had better learn accepting or all is lost!
Accept a hearty 'Merry Christmas!' from me this morning to start.
Bucky
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