Not a bad combo! The Word of God, chips and salsa, and worship music on Spotify.

Yes, I know; I can hear someone now, "Are you not the 100th person that had to write something about thankfulness?" Believe me when I say this, I purposely steer clear of writing stuff just because it's around a particular holiday or life event. I'm like, there are too many now and why add to the pile. However, here I go.  
 
Why am I choosing to write this blog post is because there are 100 other ones. Are we only thankful around Thanksgiving? As I was praying this morning, I'm thinking how many live with a thankful heart every day? Is the last Thursday of November a reminder for us to be thankful, but we live the rest of our days NOT? Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving for many reasons. Right now, I am anticipating some missionary friends to arrive at our home today from another community. I can't wait to gather with others to break bread, laugh, play some games, and give thanks all together. But, I think it's a very good thing to ponder on and ask yourself, "How thankful am I throughout the year?"  
 
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thess 5:18  
 
The Bible encourages us to give thanks in ALL circumstances; this should be our hearts cry. Yes, I know, there are things that occur in life that would be really hard to give thanks too; loss of a loved one, broken marriage, hardship with your children, and so forth. I have gone through those life problems myself, but I can honestly say, the Lord has constantly been the lifter of my head. In those times, He has invariably been with me to carry me through. As I pray and commune with him, He helps me see through the situation by shedding a different light on it. Soon, I begin to think His thoughts and not my own; my heart fills with thankfulness.  
 
A year ago, I lost my father. To this day, I miss him greatly. In so many ways, my father spoke into my life. I always felt he was a go to person for life's wisdom. We could spend hours on the phone together talking on various subjects. Today, I don't have that. I can't call him anymore. All I have is those fond memories.  
 
I could continue mourning my loss, but I choose not too. I am so thankful in so many ways. I am thankful that I had the kind of father I had. I am thankful for all the advice and insight he imparted to me. I am thankful for the, "You Can Do It," attitude he taught me. I am thankful that he was a hard worker, and I learned to do the same. I am thankful that God gave me the opportunity to pray over my father to receive the Lord as his savior. I am thankful that I know that he is in heaven waiting for his family. I am thankful knowing I will spend all eternity with him. See, thankfulness has a wonderful way to erase the pain and see through to the bright side. Only the Lord can do this. I consider it to be a wonderful gift from him to humanity to learn to be thankful in ALL circumstances.  
 
I shared about thankfulness in difficult circumstances, but how about everyday life. It's so easy to get caught up in life itself. Work, family, church, running here, running there, and much more. Life can become mundane and somewhat repetitive. If we learn to pause and just consider life as we commune with God. We can see where He has been with us each moment. How He moved this mountain for us. How He brought this person into our life. How He helped you attain that promotion. How He gave you favor on a great deal at the local store. How your children are healthy and full of life. When you start seeing every step of life and giving thanks along the way, it just gives you a super charge to move forward.  
 
Now consider one more thought with me. As you radically change your outlook, and thankfulness begins to ooze out of your very spirit to those around you. Just imagine what can happen in your family, neighborhood, community, or workplace. Where darkness was given free reign, now has a notice served against it. The hope of Jesus Christ can rise and rule over the hearts of those you touch. Why? Cause you dared to live a life of thankfulness.  
 
So, today, I am not only encouraging you to be thankful for tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, but live a life of thankfulness in the Lord in ALL areas; moment by moment. Allow him to show you the way daily. I certainly believe as you do so, you will see a brand-new beginning in who you are. You will find something that you never saw before. It will be like a breath of fresh air racing through your whole being that screams thankfulness.

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Shawn Paul
​Missionary to Honduras

​"I'll look on the bright side and force a smile" Job 9:27b 

I love to think about the spiritual law of "Sowing and Reaping" and how many applications in life can you implement it in. Did you know that in many cases, more times than not, you can sow a smile into someone's life, and you will reap a smile back? Smiling can be very contagious, not only can you change your life, but you can change other people's lives as well by simply smiling. 

Yesterday, I had a little incident. An individual decided to block traffic by parking his car literally in the middle of the road and go inside a store. I know, that is crazy! When the person came to move his car, I was not smiling; kind of stared at him. By the look upon his face, he was trying to discern what I was thinking. As I drove away, the Lord started to scold me. He was telling me I could have handled that situation better, and he wanted me to make a greater effort to think things through when these types of situations occur.  I could have smiled and comforted the guy even though he may be in the wrong for his actions.

The incident was still on my mind today. What could have happened if I had simply smiled? What kind of impression did I leave upon the person cause I choose not to smile? Since I live in a small community, could it possibly hinder the work God has for my life? I think these are important questions. It never hurts to evaluate our actions and make changes as needed. 

So, in saying all that, I am choosing to make a difference not only my life today, but in the life of others by learning to smile. Taking those difficult circumstances and situations in life and turn them around with something that really doesn't cost me much effort. Sure, it might take some work on the attitude part, but the muscle movement is all too easy.  

I encourage you to take the challenge with me. How about we all smile? How about we learn to smile more so for our friends, family, co-workers, strangers in the elevators, church folk, or any other possible place. Let's see what we can do with a simple smile!   

Please Check Out Our Prayer List!  
Look at the Rest of Our Blog!

Shawn Paul
Missionary to Honduras

We had leadership class this afternoon. Taught on, "Dare to Pray for the Body of Christ." Based off Paul's prayers in the book of Ephesians.

Pretty cool day! This morning, we baptized new believers in Jesus Christ. Harold, my friend I'm pictured with, asked me to baptize him. Nothing like enjoying the fruits that God has given you.

​Recently, my air conditioning in my truck would intermittently stop working. It would run for about 10 minutes and just quit. I took it to the mechanic, he spent all day trying to find the problem. He then told me to buy a resistor from the USA; he felt it was getting too hot. That was his solution. 

Well, long story short. Got the resistor and installed it. Guess what? It didn't fix it. So, I went to Google, something I should have done from the beginning. One suggestion was to unscrew the ground, sand, and clean it. BAM! The AC is working now!

I said all that to say this. When we are not grounded properly in Jesus it just seems like our lives only work intermittently. Sometimes, we just need to clean the junk and corrosion out of our lives and get regrounded.

Awesome time ministering in San Rafael! Such a sweet Spirit in the hearts of the people. Ministered on, "Who We Are In Christ."

Daily, we are barraged with twisted half truths about life. If there is ever a time we must know who we are in Christ is now. We must scrub our minds clean with God's written Word.

Live life in Him and through Him!

​Up in the mountains in a new community. Baby baby believers in Jesus. Ministering on Jesus being the Bread of Life. The more I preached the more I noticed people standing in the dark listening. Seeds planted. 

​You play you, you pay. Mountain truck getting some tender loving care. Needed to replace some bushings. Thank God because they noticed one of the welds broke where the wheel assembly bracket mounts to the frame. Honduras roads beat vehicles.

​What an honor to minister at a groundbreaking service here in Ostuman, Honduras. A family donated this land for a church to be built on it. Now, they are believing God to supply.

​I bet OSHA would go ballistic on this jobsite in Honduras! The scaffolding is made of scrap wood and bailing wire! 

​Look who came to see me today! Chepe with Princess and Champion (our ministry horses). He is taking Princess to get some new shoes.

​Ministering on how to lay the foundation for a life of victory in Jesus! Carola and Sami Epstein, our friends from Kentucky, joined us. They taught the children. Great times!