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Marva Jean: Good morning, dear Black Woman God said family. This is your host, Dr. Marva Jean, and we are back for the month of November. And I want to welcome back to all my guests. This month will be reflecting on the forgotten scriptures. And so let me tell you what I mean by that. Everyone has at least two or three scriptures that they know from memory: Psalms 23rd, Proverbs, several of those. but the Bible holds so much more. So in the month of November, it's Thanksgiving. So we're gonna focus on the forgotten scriptures that make us think about Thanksgiving. Now I have a few fun facts for you this morning. There are 66 books in the Bible. The Old Testament has 39, the New Testament has 27. There are 1,189 chapters. 929 in the Old Testament and the New Testament has 260 chapters for a total of 31,102 verses. So not every Christian Bible has 66 books. Catholic books have 73 books. It's 46 in the Old and 27 in the New Testament. And that's because some chapters and verses were added later. Psalm 119 is the longest verse with 176 verses. Excuse me, Psalm 119 is the longest. Psalm 117 is the shortest with two verses. Now Jesus wept, which is John 11 35, is the shortest in the King James Version. And Esther 8 and 9 is the longest with 78 words. So that gives us 31,102 words. Verses to choose to choose from. So I ask you today, which two verses are you going to commit to this month? So you gotta pick two outside of the ones that you already know. So mine is Eccles Ecclesiastes eight and fifteen. Ecclesiastes, I'm sorry, eight and fifteen. What makes me happy? Then I commented Merth. Because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and drink and to be merry. Ecclesiastes 8 and 15. Mirth means gladness or enjoyment. What makes this passage powerful is that what comes from it before it, verse 14, is that righteous people experience what the wicked deserve, and the wicked people sometimes receive what the righteous deserve. Alright? So now We can take this in many directions. We can look at what's going on in the present day and what that means for us. So sometimes we feel like, why me God? Why am I the one being passed over? Why am I the one that's forgotten? Why am I the one who's doing all the work and I'm not getting credit? Right. And you have others who are doing nothing or they're causing causing problems, causing confusion, and they seem to be rewarded. And so you think about that. That sometimes we are the righteous and we feel overlooked and the wicked are being rewarded. But now you have to take that from a different perspective. So, number one, is happiness something we have to earn? Enjoyment is not something that gets postponed until everything is handled. We have to find things that make us joyous all of the time. We have to make things find things that make us happy. We can't always depend on others to make us happy. So we have to find things within our lives that make us happy. And it's not a delayed reward. You can find things that make you happy right now. Number two, ask yourself, what good thing has happened today that I almost overlooked? And that's when ordinary joy deserves our attention. So we think about how we overlook everyday happiness. For example, My sisters and I, my mom and my aunt, we all gathered today and we had two meals together. That was a very joyous time. We had great conversation. we were able to talk about things, we were able to laugh about things that are going on in our lives, reminiscing and things like that. So that was a stroke of happiness for me today. And then number three, gratitude can help us receive what is here. So I was listening to Lil John. Yes, Lil' John on Kiki Palmer's podcast, Baby This is Kiki. And he was talking about how he learned about gratitude and how he started meditating after his son died because he realized that there's so many negative things going on in the world and what we put out in the universe comes back to us, right? So the universe doesn't know if that's negative or positive. So I want you to think about three things that you are grateful for today. And so before you go any further, just take a moment and think about three things that you are happy about today. And so I think about, I'm always grateful for my mom. If you know my relationship with my mom, I had a great relationship with my father, but he passed away. And so my mom is like my rock. So I am grateful for her relationship. I'm grateful for my aunt Kara. I have other aunts and cousins and stuff like that, but I'm grateful for my aunt Carol because she is like a mom to me. And then I'm grateful for my sisters. Now the list can go on and on, but those are three sets of people, or three, people, four people actually, that I am grateful for to have in my life. They're they're spiritual guides, they provide guidance whether you want it or not. They provide unconditional love, and no matter what happens, and we get mad at one another, or whatever the case may be, we never go a time without talking. And so, those are three things that I'm grateful for. So tomorrow I may be grateful for three other things. So I want you to think about during the month of November what are things that you are grateful for. So, dear black woman, God said there should be at least one simple joy that you can stop postponing. and choose happiness today. So let's take a moment to pray. Dear black women, there are so many things in our lives that can go wrong. There are so many people who seem like they may be against us. It may seem as though the universe is fighting against us, but in our lives we have to take time to stop and smell the coffee, smell the roses, see the sunrise, see the sunset. Look at all the great things that God has done in your life. Don't wait until the end to find happiness. Find joy in something every day. Be gracious and have gratitude for at least one thing every day. With kids screaming, work calling, cell phones ringing, text pinging, AI jumping, there are so many things that can distract you from the happiness in this world. So God, take the time today to bless these sisters who are listening to this podcast and bless them. Help them feel gratitude. Help them feel loved. And in all in your name we pray. Amen. Dear black woman, God said, See you tomorrow.