a spiritual legacy for our children and theirs and their generation. And more time at home for personal counselling and mentoring by( through WhatsApp) the people God sends us. And still just enough energy to help out in some Christian NGOs and in church.
I certainly have further reasons to continuously( in auto mode) silently or audibly praise and thank God morning, noon and night, not just for the natural blessings of food, friends, flowers, birds, bees and other creatures in my ' garden ' but also ' all things bright and beautiful ' living in a choice location.
PRACTISE GRATITUDE I have( in good, radical humour) thanked Him for my daily osteoporotic, arthritic, rheumatoid aches, pains, body twitches, mild ' brain fog ' and imperfect neuromuscular control, blurry eyes, skin itch, night time cold baths and insomnia. My impediments are not life-threatening as they are manageable by proper diet, medication, exercise, prayer, meditation, serving God, helping others, common sense and listening critically to the body, to the doctors and to Google!
I have also time to enjoy my wonderful wife in our senior years and, by daily contact through our iPhones, our eldest married daughter in Puchong( also our church honorary secretary and married to a cheeky fellow journalist and loving husband).
Plus time also to enjoy our younger daughter( married to her former godly varsity classmate, now a Ph. D., lecturing in his home state University of Belize in Central America) with their ever entertaining handsome son( 6) and lovely daughter( 2).
The more we expressed our daily gratitude to God, the more joy and blessing He adds to our lives! Just as according to His promise of abundant life and in line with what must be a few hundred Scripture verses on the power of praise, thanksgiving and GRATITUDE to Him, worshiping and blessing Him in ALL circumstances.
To each of the categories of thanksgiving items listed above, dozens more can be added with each category spilling over into dozens more.
Just to name a few: our salvation and sanctification( continuous transformation as we are still His ' work in progress '); His mercies despite our social political and other negative situations; or even for the unfailing road signs guiding us home when our eyes and bodies are weakening; the ability to sleep, eat and digest as I’ m losing my appetite and body weight, which is down to 45 kg.
But our gratitude should not just be merely natural. Godless people and animals have that! Nor should it be a matter of a senior citizen ' s old age‘ after glow ' as old people can be intolerably grumpy and ungrateful!
Ours must be the radical, spiritual, supernatural gratitude that comes from a God Who loved us first before we loved Him. For in giving us Christ, God gave us His ALL.
ASIAN BEACON 48 # 1 December 2016- January 2017 7