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One of our sending hymns says, “As we go out from this place we scatter like seeds..” This story came to me in an email from Betty Veldhuis this morning, and I thought I would share it as a great example of taking ourselves from worship to the world in daily life practice of our spiritual life. Betty writes:

“Over forty years ago I worked for a large corporation in Minnesota. There was a Day Matron (Cleaning Lady) whose name was Louise, a beautiful black woman of undeterminable age. Her main job was to keep the bathrooms in the building clean and they were spotless. She hummed and sang as she worked and had the most uplifting greetings for us as we walked in, morning or afternoon. She smelled wonderful too.

I finally had to ask her one day, “Louise, how can you always be so cheerful?” Without hesitation she said, “Every morning I wake up and thank God for all the good things in my life.”

At the time, it struck me as very simple, but I could see the positivity and gratitude in it, not to mention that Louise was living and breathing proof that it worked. The story still comes back to me after all these years, and still try to practice it. Thank you, Louise.”

Yes, it is simple. But simple often means powerful. As a suggestion, see what happens for a week when you wake up and thank God first thing for the good things in your life. In fact, name five of them specifically. Maybe you will notice more and more to be thankful for as you shift your awareness in this way. Just a week. See what happens. Maybe it will turn into forty years. Maybe your gratitude to God will scatter like seeds to others, as Louise did for Betty.

Pastor Marcia Wakeland is a retired ELCA pastor, a spiritual director and a listening advocate. She is interested in the actual experience of having faith and how that is lived out. She can be reached at mwakeland@gmail.com for comments or more questions Her ongoing blog of living out spiritual practices is listeninglife.live