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Be a faithful person who also gives thanks

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[NIV]1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

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Today I will introduce two people who thanked God instead of complaining or being disappointed about a big misfortune that befell upon them.

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The first is a very well known person to you; he is the global inventor Edison.

Edison was born in America in 1847.

He attended grade school only 3 months.

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But the global inventor Edison had very big disability.

He was deaf.

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Edison began working selling newspapers when he was only 12 years old.

He usually sold the newspapers inside a train.

Even though, he was tired he couldn’t give up the time that he took on doing experiments.

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So he made his own little experiment space on a side of the train.

Whenever he had free time, he researched and would experiment various things there.

The experiment room was full of different chemicals.

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One day, a big accident occurred.

As usual, Edison was experimenting using various chemicals.

But suddenly the train shook and a dangerous chemical fell down.

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Fire broke out because of the fallen chemical.

The train became completely chaotic because of that fire.

A big pandemonium had occurred.

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An angry train crew member pushed Edison out of the train.

Young Edison was thrown to the ground and because of that impact Edison's eardrum was ruptured.

After that day, Edison was not able to hear well. Yet, even still, he kept inventing with that disability.

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After Edison became successful people asked him,

"Because you can't hear well, there would have been many inconveniences in doing the research; therefore, how did you overcome them?"

Edison upon hearing these words, he said an unexpected saying.

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Edison replied, "I honestly give thanks for my hearing disorder. Since my ear couldn’t hear well, I couldn't get discouraged or disappointed easily. Because, I can't hear well, I can't hear the surroundings and so I was able to obtain a higher focus on the research work. For that, I am even more thankful for it. "

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The next person we will talk about today is Fanny Crosby.

This person wrote about 9,000 hymns.

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When she was young by the mistake of a town doctor, she became blind.

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To young blind Crosby, her grandmother told many Bible stories to her. She became a person with a pure heart by the Bible stories heard daily.

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When she was 9 years old she prayed, "If God will give me a chance to see the world again, I won’t accept it. Since You, God, will give me clean eyes when I come to the kingdom of God, so in this world without seeing the dirty things I will see the face of Jesus Christ by clean eyes someday."

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"If I will meet the person who made me blind, I will thank him a lot." She thanked God that her eyes couldn’t see, so she didn’t have to see the dirty and bad things of the world.

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We always live with complains and dissatisfaction. Every day we get irritated and angry and we try to get more. But from now on, like Edison and Crosby who thanked God with all the things given to them by Him. I hope you will have the true thankfulness in your heart. When we thank God for all the things that He has given to us, God lifts us up and makes us stand as great faithful people.