LOS ANGELES - January 13, 2024 - Most people are taught, at a young age, to say “thank you” in response to a kind gesture. This expression of gratitude tells the “giver” that their actions are appreciated.
Another expression of gratitude — generally referring to circumstances that happen to work out much better than expected — is this: “Thank God!” Maybe most who utter those words aren’t thinking about a deity; they’re probably just glad things turned out for the best.
But what if God could reach out to an individual human, speak directly to that person, and have open discussions about the true meaning of gratitude?
The late Dr. Pieter Noomen, a psychotherapist who worked in suicide prevention and hospice and also served as a senior minister for various Protestant churches, said he experienced many conversations with “I AM,” the name that he says the entity known as “God” uses for Himself/Herself (Dr. Noomen indicated that the deity is not gender-specific). Before Dr. Noomen died in 2019, he wrote thousands of entries in which he transcribed conversations with I AM, and they remain available free to anyone at any time who wants to read them on his website, www.wordsforall.org.
As it turns out, I AM had lots to say about gratitude and thankfulness. Here’s one of the transcriptions, in I AM’s own words:
“Succeeding in even one tiny endeavor can become a reminder of the greater feat, which is, that you can be on your way, as all can be, to reflect more of My nature. You see how this sheds an unfamiliar but lasting light on gratitude and thankfulness?
“I do not ask you to be grateful to Me, like I won't thank you when you are 'good.' Gratitude is more than a feeling. You may say all happy progression embodies it. Among people, gratitude is expressed with familiar gestures and praising words.
“In close and warm relationships, expressing appreciation deepens joy and trust. Yet between Me and you, between Me and all before Me, it can create distance. Between Us, thankfulness isn't based on what I do or did for you, or you for Me. It's rooted in the journey we share. I progress through you, as you through Me. Therefore, gratitude equals being in life!”
What better time than November, the month of giving thanks, to ponder the full meaning of words like gratitude and thankfulness? Here is another transcription from Dr. Noomen’s Words for All website, in the words of I AM:
"Your thinking about progression, success and improving can be focused properly. Succeeding in even one tiny endeavor can become a reminder of the greater feat, which is, that you can be on your way, as all can be, to reflect more of My nature. Can you see how this sheds an unfamiliar, but lasting light on gratitude and thankfulness?”
A timely example from Dr. Noomen’s Wisdoms of the Week from his website, www.wordsforall.org:
"Gratitude can be something 'in general.' Yet, thanking for some specific thing can go to the core of who we are. Once, someone bedridden and suffering told me she looked for something, anything she still could be grateful for. For her, it was the pillow she could put her head on. Realistic? Yes! In every darkness is somewhere a flicker of light. Even if 'only' in our spirit."
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