Take Out Time -- To Just Be Thankful

Home
>
Inspirational
>
Take Out Time -- To Just Be Thankful

Take Out Time -- To Just Be Thankful

While sitting here tonight, watching the conclusion of "There Are No Children Here," my heart pulsated as I heard a little innocent boy say, "When I wake up in the morning, I feel good that God gave me another chance to stay alive." This statement as innocent as it was, was true to him because of where he lived, and the lethal possibilities that he faced daily of being killed by someone's bullet.

Oh -- I thought, just how much do I really mean those words when I wake up in the morning? Are those words as true to me as they are to this little boy, or have they become a ritual -- empty words with no meaning?

In our often-stressful lives, we are constantly absorbed by negativisms, feeling that our troubles are insurmountable and that no one else in this world is troubled by such circumstances.

We are often absorbed by meaningless thanksgivings -- being thankful only in empty words for the things that we have. We are so absorbed with the things that we do not have, that we effortlessly forget about the things that we do have. Things such as loved ones, a place to lay our heads, food on our tables and clothes on our backs. Things such as -- LIFE.

Things that we often complain about -- that we often yearn -- overpoweringly forces us to forget to be thankful for what we have. While we are often concerned with the things in life that we feel like we cannot live without, there are millions of others, of young girls and boys, men and women, who are genuinely thankful to just be alive.

Just to be alive -- is enough alone to be thankful. Take out time -- this day -- to just be thankful.

Copyright © 2002 by Audrina Jones Bunton. REPRINTING THIS ARTICLE: Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this article only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged. You can find other articles to choose from at http://www.purposefully-living.com/mail ing%20list.htm

Motivational Speaker, Audrina Jones Bunton was born the seventh of eight children in her household in Pinehurst, North Carolina into a loving and committed Christian home. As she has 2 children, over 40 nieces and nephews and great- nieces and nephews, it is not unusual to find her under the same roof with many of her maternal five-generation family on weekends and on holidays. In her youth, she fondly recalls traveling throughout the U.S. with her family, as her parents ministered from state to state year after year-helping people as they traveled.

A graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, Audrina is a Competent Toastmaster of Toastmasters International and serves as the North Carolina District Sergeant At Arms. She is a former counselor of the Durham Pregnancy Support Services, a Christian-oriented crisis pregnancy center in Durham, North Carolina and is currently a Social Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Audrina is currently studying at the Master's Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana with a combined concentration in Biblical Counseling and IABC certification.

She also serves as the Youth Director at the Come As You Are Evangelistic Center in Aberdeen, North Carolina where her mother, Lydia Jones is the pastor.

Modeling after a song that her mother so often sings, and one that Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, her life and speeches are based on the following lyrics, "If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain."

Audrina resides with her husband William, and 2 children, Audrina Lorraine and William Woodrow.

In The News:

School's inspirational banner teaches a life lesson
Vancouver Sun
But for Vancouver swimmer Scott Dickens, those words, in big red and white letters on a banner at the back of a school gymnasium in his hometown of Ancaster, Ont., four years ago became life altering and a huge inspiration. "Three words that definitely ...

and more »

Moneycontrol.com
US: Arab uprisings 'inspirational' but destabilizing for Mideast
CNN
The report itself says: "The yearning for change we have witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria is inspirational, and yet change often creates instability before it leads to greater respect for democracy and human rights.
US hails Arab Spring but warns of instabilityeuronews

all 28 news articles »

Wound Care Publication to be Distributed Within USA Today Highlights ...
MarketWatch (press release)
JR Martinez, whose resume includes burn survivor, motivational speaker, Dancing With the Stars alum, Army Veteran, and actor, graces the publication's cover, while his inspirational story of experiencing a devastating wound, surviving to tell his story ...

Inspirational Network's David Cerullo is highest-paid nonprofit exec
Bizjournals.com (blog)
David Cerullo, president and chief executive of The Inspirational Network Inc., tops the list, with $1.9 million in compensation. Marc Favaro and Bill Airy, also executives at the Lancaster County based-network, hold the second and third spots on the ...

Catskill Daily Mail
Dennis Walters Provides The Inspiration To Follow Your Dreams
Catskill Daily Mail
However, what could be certainly considered the highlight of the show despite the entertaining golf antics is the inspirational message woven into the show. “Once I started golfing again, I took to the road and for me, it was good therapy,” Walters ...

Inspirational Journey for female engineers at Atkins
The Engineer
Atkins has joined An Inspirational Journey, an initiative aimed at increasing the number of women working at the senior corporate level in Britain's boardrooms. Atkins said in a statement that it has signed up a team of women that have been identified ...

£600000 for "inspirational" awards programme
eGov monitor
Mr Salmond said the Foundation and the Leadership Award, run in partnership with the Outward Bound Trust for the last 14 years, were an inspiration, helping change the lives of more than 1750 young people who have taken part since the programme's ...

and more »

AFP
'Yearning for change' in Arab states inspirational: US
AFP
The report said "the yearning for change we have witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria is inspirational, and yet change often creates instability before it leads to greater respect for democracy and human rights.

and more »

DAWN.com
'Yearning for change' in Arab states inspirational: US
DAWN.com
“The yearning for change we have witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria is inspirational,” said US State Department report on human rights. -Reuters Photo WASHINGTON: A US report hailed the “yearning for change” in Arab countries and ...

and more »

Globe and Mail
The California Historical Society Releases Inaugural Free Multimedia eBook ...
MarketWatch (press release)
The phrase is borrowed from a 1921 promotional prospectus for the Golden Gate Bridge in which the authors, chief engineer for the bridge Joseph Strauss and San Francisco city engineer MM O'Shaughnessy, used inspirational language to set a tone for the ...
Jack Dorsey takes staff on Golden Gate BridgeBizjournals.com (blog)

all 155 news articles »

Google News