"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."

Vince Lombardi

I thank my God

Think of someone you play with regularly ñ or coach with, or work with, or live with. What is your first thought about that person? Is it to thank God for them?

Sometimes it is easy to thank God for a person. I find it easy to thank God for my wife and for my special friends. But even then I do not do it often enough. Even with our special friends we can easily become critical and negative rather than thankful.

Now Paul was being thankful for the whole Philippian church. You can bet your bottom dollar that some of the church were awkward people ñ you find them in every church.

To react positively and prayerful takes effort. In many situations we have a choice about how we will react. Will we be thankful or will we complain? In English we have an expression about a glass of water - is it half full or half empty? Two people look at the same glass. For one it is half full (seeing the positive) for another it is half empty (emphasizing the negative). I bet Paul would have thanked God that the glass for 75% full!

As someone is late for training, puts in little effort, does not do her share of the boring jobs in the club, let us try to encourage her, to pray for her and to thank God for her -rather than allowing negative thoughts to come into our mind.

Imagine the impact on ourselves and others if we thanked God for people every time we thought of them.

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