Joel Osteen Podcast - Appreciating Every Area Of Our Life | Victoria Osteen

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

Wherever you are today, ask God to show you the blessings in your life. When you learn to value what you have, you'll be prepared to receive all of His promises! Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visitJoelOsteen.com/GiveHope.Experience the joy of beginning each day in peace, purpose, and faith. Our June offer will help you strengthen your morning routine. Request3-Minute Mornings and watch what happens when you give God the start of your day, https://bit.ly/3Yza9Ie! Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend? We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. I just want to talk to us today about appreciating every area of our life. You know, when we appreciate something, we bring awareness to it. We bring value to it. and we are less likely to take it for granted.

In Deuteronomy 10 through 12, God was taking the children of Israel to city they had not built. He said, I'm giving you homes filled with great treasure. He said, I'm giving you vineyards. You didn't plow. But I'm giving them to you so that you can work them. I'm giving you homes with great treasure in them so that you can live in them. And he went on and on to tell all the wonderful gifts that he was giving them. But then he warned them.

He said, I have to warn you, I'm giving you all of these things, but don't take them for granted. He said, don't take them for granted and don't forget who gave them to you. Don't take them for granted and not honor me. See, the same thing is happening today. God has given us things a great country to live in. He's given us homes. He's given us family, friends, jobs. And he is saying, don't forget who gave it to you, and honor me in it.

You see, I believe when we appreciate God, when we appreciate the things that God has given us, we're honoring him. You see, appreciation is a language, and it honors God. How many of us have seen videos or visited impoverished countries and realize how blessed we really are? We have running water. We have great grocery stores, restaurants, whatever we need, it's basically at our fingertips. And we see these impoverished countries and people, and our heart goes out to them,

and we feel so compassionate and we feel so blessed, right? Then we get to our jobs, we get to our homes, we face life, challenges, decisions, things go wrong, and we forget about those things. We forget how grateful we should be. We get comfortable, uninterested. We take things for granted. It's easy to do, and we all do it.

But can I tell you that we've got to learn the language of appreciation? Have you ever heard yourself say, I have to go to work? I have to go pick up my kids. I have to make dinner. I have to clean up after my husband. See, the language of appreciation says this.

It says, I get to go to work because I have a job. I'm so blessed to have my children. I'm going to go pick them up now. I have a house. I get to clean it. See, that's the language of appreciation. I was talking to a man the other day, and he was telling me, he actually showed me a list of jobs that he had.

had had ever since he was a teenager. And he began at 13 years old. He was a paper boy. He went on to 15 and he started mowing lawns. 17. He was shoveling snow. Then he went on to be a plumber. Then he went on to be a pipe fitter. Then he went on to be a contractor. Then he went on to, and he was going on and on. I thought, dear Lord, how many jobs is this man had? But the purpose of showing me this list was this. He said, I, back through my life, and I looked at every job that I've ever had. And he said, I thought about it. And he said, what did that job show me? What did that job give me? And he assigned a word to each one of those jobs. Words like commitment, perseverance, integrity, responsibility. He said, Victoria, you know

some of those jobs at the time? I couldn't see how they even made sense. He said they were difficult. They were hard. He says, but when I made this list, he said, what it did is it showed me how grateful I could be for each and every one of these jobs and how it developed my character and my resolve for the next job. You know what he was doing? He was adding value to his life.

He was mining the gold. See, sometimes we get stuck in those places and we make examples. excuses why we didn't get to the next place. See, we had to do this. Our parents didn't bring us upright. Well, if I'd have had an opportunity to go to college, well, if I didn't have to work this job, you see, this man told me, I read this list often. He said, because it helps me be very aware and conscious of where I am right now and the blessings in my life. See, This man is a top executive now at a million dollar company. He said, I read it often.

I never want to take this for granted. You see, we should all dig the gold out of our life. Yeah, we're going to face challenges. We're going to face challenges. Things aren't always going to be easy. But when we begin to look for the lessons, when we begin to look for what can build in us, you know, that's where we're going to find the value.

That's when we're going to find the purpose. You see, when you're appreciative and you look for the value in something, what you're doing is you're adding to your life. Sometimes we run around thinking there's a missing link. If I could only find that thing. And when you have an attitude like that, you are lacking. And when you're lacking, it's hard to find purpose. That's why wherever you are today, no matter how difficult it is, ask God to show you

where's the value in this, God? How can I appreciate this? Because it's something you've given me. You see, the happy people are the people that can be appreciative of what they have right now on the way to where they're going. Have you ever heard that song? You don't know what you got till it's gone?

I think it's a country western song. It sounds like it. You know, it's unfortunate that some people have to lose something before they recognize the value in it. You see, we shouldn't have to lose something to begin to appreciate it. I was talking to a man the other day, and he was telling me how he had struggled with this long battle of cancer and his recovery had been very difficult.

He said, but let me tell you, Victoria, I see the world in a completely different way. How I viewed my life before cancer is totally different than how I view my life now. He said, the important things to me are my friends and my family. He said this that I thought it was so good. He said, you know, when you've had cancer, he said, you realize that a bucket list is overrated. He said, experiencing and appreciating what you have every day is what's important. You see, we don't want to have to almost lose something to appreciate what we have. We cannot get so comfortable and so accustomed to the blessings in our life.

someone gave me a sculpture and I liked it. It was really pretty. I put it up in my home. And that sculpture was right where I wanted to put my Christmas tree. So I took the sculpture down and I sorted in a back closet in my home. I put all my Christmas decorations up. Okay, don't judge me, but I put my Christmas decorations up a week before Thanksgiving. But I take them down right after Christmas. I was digging in a closet just not long ago and I noticed a, uh, I noticed, uh, a sheet in the back of that closet. And I thought, what is that? And I pulled off the sheet, and it was that statue. Now, that statue had been in there about two years. And I thought, oh my gosh, I forgot all about this statue. You know, sometimes you get so much stuff,

maybe some pretty things you forget about what you have. So I kind of just forgot all about the statue. So I tossed a sheet back over it because I was in a hurry. And I left. Well, a few days later, I was with some friends of mine and we were on a project and we were staging a table. And so we had the table looking really good and somebody said, you know, we need something special on this table. We need something to set this table off. And so we were looking for all these things. What can we just top this table off with? And in my mind, I thought about that statue in my closet with a sheet on it.

I thought, hmm, that might just look good. So I had someone bring it where I was. And so we put the statue on it, and all the girls were like, whoa, that is beautiful. That is the most perfect thing ever. That is so gorgeous. And I stood back and I thought, that is pretty, isn't it? It's amazing how I valued the beauty in that statue because everyone else did. So on my way home, I was thinking to myself, I got to find something like that because I want my statue back.

So I got home and I got on the internet and I started looking, looking, what can I get that's like that? What can I get that's like that? And to my surprise, I realized that that statue was a limited edition. The artist only made a few and you couldn't get it anymore. And then I found a gallery that was looking for that specific statue. They wanted to buy it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is something so valuable.

I want my statue back. I want my statue back. That's all I could think about was getting my statue back. You see, sometimes we don't appreciate things until someone else sees the value in them. You see, what you're taken for granted today someone else may be praying for.

Some things can't be replaced. They're one of a kind. Your mother, your father, children, your spouse, don't neglect it. Don't get so used to it that you forget the precious gift that it really is. You see, I believe the happiest people are the people who appreciate what they have right now

and place value on it. Because when you place value on it, it places value on you and your life. Listen, God's taken us to great places, but he never wants us to take for granted everything that is given us right now. Amen. Amen. It's easy to let the day get away from us before the day even starts. The first few minutes of your morning are more powerful than you might think. Life moves really fast sometimes, and it can be easy to begin each day by zeroing in on your problems.

But here's the truth. How you start the day can determine what kind of day it's going to be. I'd love to send you my devotional three-minute mornings, start your day. day the blessed way. Three minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time, but when you put God first place and get your mind going in the right direction is setting the tone for a blessed, productive day. It's filled with inspiration and encouragement to help you begin each day with a fresh attitude, grateful that you're alive. It's amazing what happens when you take three minutes and speak blessings over your life and declaring God's favor. Three minute mornings is our gift to you. As our way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount of

this month, we would like to send you a copy of Joel's new devotional, Three Minute Mornings. Start Your Day in Faith. This powerful book will open the pathways to experience God's presence and peace in your life. And there, you will find renewed energy, assurance, and wisdom to face your day. The Bible promises that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So as you pause for only three minutes and take in his wonderful promises in this book, you will be positioning yourself to receive all the amazing things that God has in store for you. Please request your copy today and watch anxiety turn to divine answers, weakness to strength, problems to renewed possibilities, frustrations to God's favor. Yes, only three

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