(Adapted from my book Life Palette)

There are several values God tells us are His will for all of us. We don’t need to pray about whether or not we want them on our Life Palette; He tells us He wants us to make sure they are on our Life Palette. We simply need to develop our understanding and cultivate our use of them. Here are two of them:

1. Thankfulness.

I once looked up every verse in the Bible on giving thanks. A stack of pages emerged from the printer, back when all we had were those noisy dot matrix printers. Don’t take my word for it. Do a word study and you will come to the same conclusion: giving thanks is to be a value on every person’s Life Palette.

“And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”       (Colossians 3:17 NLT)

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”                (Colossians 2:6-7 NLT)

2. Rejoice always.

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4 NLT) This is not an option. We are to proclaim His glory and His praise. We will all go about it differently and express it in our own way according to our God-given personalities and gifts, but rejoicing is to be on every Life Palette.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”                                                                                     (Romans 5:3-5 NLT)

Next Steps:

Consider the values listed that God desires on every Life Palette—being thankful, rejoicing always. Which of these do you need to make a value on your Life Palette? How?