
Nov 23, 2022
Episode #173
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
David and Karen Mains discuss how to create a truly thankful spirit by making an intentional effort to tell God those things for which we are grateful.
Episode Transcript
David: Here’s our key sentence. Developing a truly thankful spirit requires intentionality. Okay, that means as we get close to the day we designate as Thanksgiving, we have to say, okay, it doesn’t just happen circumstantially. You need to work at it.
Karen: You have to be intentional, in other words.
Read More
David: When we wrote a key sentence for this visit, Karen, we made use of a word that neither of us used that often. See if you can define it. Okay, here it is. Intentionality.
Karen: Well, it means that things don’t happen by happenstance, that you make a point of doing it and you do it.
David: Yeah, it’s on purpose. Yeah.
Intro: Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.
David: Here’s our key sentence. Developing a truly thankful spirit requires intentionality. Okay, that means as we get close to the day we designate as Thanksgiving, we have to say, okay, it doesn’t just happen circumstantially. You need to work at it.
Karen: You have to be intentional, in other words.
David: There you go. So, what we decided was that we would write a list of things about which we were thankful. And I stopped at 10 because I didn’t think we could cover more than those and you do it on a habitual basis, right? So, you didn’t write a specialist at 10.
Karen: Well, for 40 years, I kept a prayer journal. I’d mentioned this before on the podcast and I always begin with a thought of praise. I praise you that you are the God who, you know, and then I fill that in. But beneath that always comes my list of things I’m thankful for. So, for 40 years, almost daily, I have recorded my thanksgivings written them out in my prayer journal. I could go back to them and just look at the things I was grateful for. And actually, that would be a good practice for thanksgiving now that I’m thinking about it through all of those years, not all 40 years, but, you know, go back 20 maybe and just sort of pop in and look at it and say, “Wow, yeah, I remember that, that God was faithful.”
David: Here’s my list. Okay. There had been a number of predictions that there would be violence when we had our national election. I look back and I say, I’m grateful that it was normal because I never think about violence being a part of going to cast my vote. We leave here, we’re in a little town of maybe 25,000 people and down the street, a couple blocks away is the Lutheran Church. All these years, I’ve always got that’s been our polling place. It was filled with people, and they were happy people. We stood in line. There were a number of Hispanics in line because the town where we live is over half Hispanic.
Karen: And how wonderful it is to have the former immigrant community who are now citizens be a part of our polling place where they’re going to vote. It’s just great.
David: There were more people than normal who were workers there. Some of them quite young. That was really neat.
Karen: All volunteers.
David: But the whole system around the country, it was pulled off and we were back to normal all of a sudden. That was very wonderful.
Karen: For me too, after all of the contentious sorts of discussion that’s been going on in the news media and the questions about voting and safety and voting and to go into our polling place that we’ve gone into for 40 years in our little town and then to vote, all of a sudden, I was just hit with this is a sacred act. I felt teary eyed. Everyone was very careful that the votes were done correctly. I just thought there’d be no way you could ruin the little system that existed. I don’t know the time of my Chicago, but this is going on all over the country in thousands and thousands of places. There must be 10,000 of poll workers who are part of this act.
David: It was funny Karen because you can go these little booths where you have privacy, and you vote. But there were so many people voting that there weren’t any booths available and so they said if you don’t mind you could just sit at a desk.
Karen: A long table.
David: A long table. I sat at one end and you sat at the other end.
Karen: And then I came to consult with you about the judges who I couldn’t remember who we’d agreed to vote on, and they scooched me down to my head.
David: They said no, you’re not allowed.
Karen: You have to stay in your place at your end of the table.
David: And what was amazing was that you were obedient.
Karen: Okay David.
David: I’ll go quickly to number two on my list. Okay?
There’s been this recent breakthrough regarding the Tales of the Kingdom books being put into film. People have talked about it. We’ve kind of dreamed about it and it’s not a done deal.
Karen: It’s still in the very early stages. We’re consulting with an entertainment lawyer and all of that sort of stuff has to happen first for everyone’s sake. But it’s very much an item in our minds.
David: Well, we pray about it every day and it looks as though this is going to move ahead. We’re so grateful. I mean how many people who write books get the book put into some kind of other form of media and even think of the possibility of this becoming a feature film sometime.
Karen: Pretty extraordinary.
David: Yeah, that’s very exciting to us. Okay, I’m ready for the next one.
I’m thankful for the mutual belief that God has led us to a church in our suburb which we feel good about. Actually, Karen this was I think the 18th church we had visited because we wanted to be in a congregation closer to where we live. And so, we made a pretty thorough study and we would leave a given church and we never could come to agreement that this was a good place where we could…
Karen: Not that it wasn’t a good place but a place where we felt like we should be there, and we could fit in and contribute.
David: When we left this church, I thought, “Oh boy I kind of enjoyed this.” I mean there were maybe 40 people at the most.
Karen: It has a Hispanic group that also meets in that church building. They have a building of their own which a lot of places don’t have.
David: I thought I will think this is good, but Karen won’t. By golly you said I think the Lord has spoken to us. This is where we belong and then we felt that way and we’ve had people to the house now just really feel good about where we are and how our gifts can fit into this near community which we are a part of and have been for over 40 years, but we’ve gone to church mostly back toward the city.
Karen: Yeah, back into the city.
David: Okay that’s number three. Number four. I have been given a little bit more than you have a gift of a long life. I am 86 years old. You’ll be 80 in January and all these years and in relatively good health and then all the extras the Lord has piled on in terms of those years. We’ve visited all countries of the world. I think we’ve been in over 50 countries in ministry in one way or another and just the beauty of that and all the friends in these different countries that have been developed. How fortunate we are Karen.
Karen: Well just the exposure I think David of what God is doing in his body across the world in different nations and we’ve often come home and said “If the Christians faith here in America was as vibrant and active as those Christians we meet in places around the world, we will be in a good place in the States.”
David: Here’s my number five, okay? We are starting to exercise once again the gift of hospitality. Having people in those wonderful conversations around the table as friends are there, and you get to know new friends along the way for many many months and years you couldn’t do it because of COVID.
In fact, if you would invite someone to come, they probably wouldn’t come because there was a danger with that possibility. But now, we’ve had three or four times when we’ve had people come in and it is just exciting and wonderful. You feeling that way?
Karen: I do. I agree. I’m grateful for that too.
David: Okay. I’ll go to number six on my list, okay? So, blessed to sense God’s presence in my life almost on a daily basis. I would say that Christ’s pleasure in terms of the way we live his Holy Spirit’s guidance. I have that sense of the supernatural and I use that very carefully but there’s a deeply personal to me. I want to make sure that I have that on my list as I say the things for which I’m thankful this year. You want to close your ears just for a little while now? Just kind of blank it out. A surprise. A gift of a fantastic wife I’m immensely proud of and who loves me and continues to help me be the man God wants me to be. That is something that I am very very grateful for.
Karen: I didn’t hear that I had closed my ears.
David: Good. I’m glad because… No, I didn’t know where I stated I said exactly what I feel.
Karen: Well, I heard a little bit of it. Thank you.
David: Okay, here is number eight. This sounds like it’s kind of yeah yeah everybody says thankful for that. But I’m very grateful for the blessing of food on our table. I don’t remember a time all of the years we’ve been married when we haven’t had food you know. I haven’t gone hungry or when somebody said we’ll just have to kind of do the best we can tonight because we just don’t have the money to buy the food. A lot of people around the world Karen, we hear from our travels we know there are a lot of people have it very very hard.
Karen: Well, here in the States as well.
David: In the States as well, that is true. I can’t even remember prior to being married and being raised in a debt. Mom never said there’s no food for the night. I’m sorry. And they lived through the depression I didn’t, but they did. So, they knew what it was like in a whole generation to what it was to stand in line many people waiting for soup. I’ve never had to experience that kind of thing and I’m grateful to the Lord.
I also am very grateful, this is number nine, for an unbelievably generous group of supporters who has stood with us for decades here. A lot of them, they have very little resource themselves, have given gifts of five, ten dollars, you know, month after month after month. I can name them. I pray for many of them because they ask for special prayer. And I have them on my list. And I bring them before the Lord. I know when letter comes from Carl, he’s out in California every month, it’s going to be ten dollars. Bless his heart.
Karen: Every month, ten dollars.
David: He never missed it. I know that Mary’s sending the gift and she’s very generous and yet I know that she’s a recent widow. I know these people. I wouldn’t know them if I had to pick them out in a group because I’ve never met them personally, but they are faithful people and they have names. And we’re not for them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing right now. I mean these are beautiful, beautiful people. How many have I named so far? That’s nine. Okay, here’s my tenth one. I didn’t want to leave this one out. A special friend, known for so long and this podcast would not ever get to people where it not for him. In fact, he’s the one who encouraged me. That’s Dean.
We’re here in West Chicago, Illinois. He’s in Erie, Pennsylvania and he said, “You know, I could set up in your home a studio where you could do your podcast together and I’ll record it in Pennsylvania and then I’ll see to it that it’s distributed.” He took all that on his own. He paid for the equipment in everything and now we’re still on and we’re into our we’re getting close to 200 podcasts. That’s not because of us as much as the encouragement that Dean said, “I believe you still have a word from the Lord to speak to people.” And I’m so indebted to individuals like this. It’s just absolutely amazing to me. I’m wanting to live always in that mindset of, I’m not a big shot. I am supported by individuals all over this country.
Karen: And half of it of our ministry.
David: Yes, very much so. And the people, I just got a letter from Juanita and a very sizeable gift, and she said, “I counted a privilege to be supportive of you. “
Karen: Makes you want to cry.
David: Yeah, it does. In fact, a lot of times that I’ll drive home because I don’t have the staff I used to have. So, I’m the one who goes to the post office now and picks up the mail and I a lot of times pray even while I’m driving. I don’t shut my eyes. I know you’re going to ask that. But I say, “Lord, I’m just grateful for all these people who make it possible for us to be involved in kingdom work.”
Karen: There’s an interesting turn, David, in the psychological world. For decades, contemporary modern psychology is it’s developed, has looked at what’s aberrant in human behavior. What’s going wrong, what our illness is.
David: Yeah, the abnormal.
Karen: The abnormal. And it’s made a huge shift within the last 10 years and they’re just starting to write about it, I think. So, I have a book called Flourish. That’s the title, Flourish, a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. It’s written by Martin E.P. Seligman, who is a psychologist. He’s writing about the fact that, you know, in the past psychology looked at what was wrong with human behavior. And then it made a shift to begin to decide what were the signs of healthiness, what were the aspects that made for well-being in humans.
And interesting, as I was going through this and I’ve highlighted and I re-read it a couple times because I find it to be very powerful. Positive mental health is a presence, the presence of meaning. There’s meaning to my life, the presence of good relationships. I have connections, the presence of accomplishment. I have done something; I’m involved in things that are using my strengths and my abilities and I’m feeling good about them. So, when we talk about a positive aspect such as thanksgiving or giving thanks, that also included in Seligman’s work. In fact, he has patients who are depressed or patients who are less than satisfied with their lives, not just in a minor sort of way. Here’s a whole sequence of things they asked them to do, but it was interesting to me to see that he asked them at the end of each day to look back on the day and to think about and name three things that they’re grateful for.
David: That’s beautiful.
Karen: Isn’t that great? And he said that this just makes an extraordinary shift in people’s outlet. It turns them from more of a negative response to much more of a positive response.
So, if this very well-known psychologist is using this as part of his practice, I think those of us who are wanting to change from having a negative outlook on life to a positive outlook on life can begin doing this very simple thing. Before I go to sleep, what three things am I grateful for that happened to me that were good today? Now, I think one of the things that you have introduced is the concept of making the list of things that you’re thankful for. But I think what would also help people is to make a list of scriptures that teach about thanksgiving. In fact, one of our good friends, Jeannie Bader, who has…
David: …been supporting for years and years and years.
Karen: …but not just with their gifts. She interacts, and she’s been putting together a huge list of verses on thanksgiving, taking it all out of scripture. And then we’re trying to dialogue and brainstorm how we can make that into sort of a calendar that people use all year round. And then they come up with their own areas of gratitude as well. So that it’s not just something you know about intellectually, it’s something you apply specifically and practically. I think what would happen if our listeners would say, “Okay, I’m going to find out what scripture says about thanksgiving.” And just do the very same thing, but go to Concordance, look it up, and then write it down. Do that action that you take as a person who’s receiving this truth.
Here are some of these quotes. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks all circumstances.” Oh, my goodness. “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
David: Jeannie sent these to you?
Karen: She sent me a whole list. I pulled these papers off the internet because hers are, they’re extensive. This was easier to get to this morning. “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing; and in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And that’s from two different versions of the scripture.
David: I’m going to read one that I had written down as a key text for our visit and is probably on your list then Karen. This is Psalm 100 verses 4 and 5. It’s just a very short psalm but it ends this way. “Enter his gates with,” say it,
Karen: “Thanksgiving.”
David: Okay. “… and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name for the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues throughout all generations,” not just our folk’s generation, but our generation as well. And then also for our offspring, he will continue to be faithful, and we thank him for that.
Karen: Okay, here’s 2nd Thessalonians 1:3. “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so because your faith is growing more and more and the love all of you have for one another is increasing…” where we could go on and on and on. But that pretty much gives the idea of what I think would be a really good activity for Christians to begin to gather in their lives. The journal pages, something on the internet that you type out. You have to type it out yourselves or write it down yourself, not just read it. And that begins to activate that exercise and discipline of intentionality. I’m going to be a grateful person no matter the circumstances.
David: I’m going to do this. I’m purposing in my life to do it because to just take it casually and say yes, I agree. We need to be thankful and then get through especially Thanksgiving season and never having actually had a special time when you said, “Lord, here’s what I want to say, and I’ve written it down and it’s almost becomes a prayer.”
Karen: Yeah, Jeannie and I are saying that every day should be Thanksgiving Day and that’s what we’re working with in this little project.
David: Now that is intentionality.
Karen: That’s intentionality.
Outro: You’ve been listening to the Before We Go Podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address, hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all-lower-case letters. hosts@beforewego.show.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please remember to rate, review, and share on whatever platform you listen. This podcast is copyright 2022 by Mainstay Ministries, Post Office Box 30, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.
Leave a Reply