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Small Business Notes and Printable Tax Season

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me at intentionallyinspired@gmail.com. 

Have a great day and be intentional..  

Here are some notes from the scope.  

Kristin Zolkowski

http://intentionallyinspired.blogspot.com/

intentionallyinspired@gmail.com

https://twitter.com/kcfarmfresh

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I live in Wisconsin, Wife mom of 4 2 adults 2 teens that think they are adults. I have been in business since 1996, Moving business, Sign Business (4-6 employees) Bookkeeping, concierge, in home daycare center, cleaning, desktop publishing, logo design. Moved in June to a small farmhouse. I just cut off the last of my clients letting them know I would not be doing their taxes this upcoming season. I am not up to keep up with the ever changing laws J Except for whoomyself.. 

Approaching this as though you know nothing. Sorry if some of this sounds very basic but believe it or not some people are not fully aware of the most basic IRS rules and since the laws are changing from year to year tax preparers are now required to obtain a certified license for preparing taxes in an office.

When you decide that your blog or other business is ready to become more than a hobby per the IRS, there are a few things you need to consider;

Business Structures, DBA, yes

Business or hobby ??

The IRS will not allow tax deductions if your business, be it blogging or any other business is categorized as a hobby. To claim your deductions, you must first show the IRS that you are running a legitimate business that is generating a profit 3 out of 5 of the most recent years. Some Other things the IRS may might look at is the amount of time and activity that you put into your business and whether or not you depend on income from it and does it how profit potential.

Estimated Taxes are Due April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 (with some exceptions for holidays, etc.). If you don't pay your estimated taxes in a reasonable timely manner, you may owe an additional tax penalty.

What you are calculating is the amount you must pay for self-employment tax on your income, which is the combined Social Security and Medicare taxes paid by an employee and an employer. Because you run your own business, you required to pay both the employee and the employer portions. Self-employment tax must be paid whether or not you owe any federal income tax.

Self-employment tax when you are putting money aside for your estimated income taxes, don't forget to set aside additional money for self-employment tax. From the perspective of the IRS, working as a blogger means you run your own business and that your income from that income is taxed.

Keeping Track of Expenses: I cannot stress enough how important Good record keeping is. I was audited by the Irs years ago. I made several costly mistakes but I was forgiven of those mistakes with a warning by the IRS, solely based on the fact that I kept my paperwork extremely organized. They were able to wiz through thousands of receipts and expense. This was much better than dropping a load of jumbled receipts on their desk and expecting them to calculate them.

Ideas for keeping track of expenses and deductions: There is a giant Plethora of options for keeping track of expense ranging from simple excel spreadsheets to $400 + accounting programs where Programs like Quickbooks, Peachtree and Quicken Etc. Quickbooks hands down is probably, still, after all these years the consumers choice. (Side note: Keep a small ledger in car to keep track of business mileage. The Irs will ask if you keep track of your mileage. )

I cannot stress enough!! Keep receipts, keep them in categories. Print them, ask for them, and get them. (Stubs, PayPal receipts, emails etc.)

a special tax rule allows you to deduct up to $5,000 in start-up expenses the first year you are in business, and then deduct the remainder, if any, in equal amounts over the next 15 years.

For an expense related to your business to be deductible, it needs to be both “ordinary” and “necessary”. No matter what industry you are in, that is the standard for the IRS. So, any time that you question whether something is deductible, as a first step, ask yourself is this “ordinary” and “necessary”?

An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your industry. It’s the one time that you care about what your competitors are doing. No matter what your mother says, it does matter whether everyone else is doing it, too.

A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your trade or business. You don’t have to prove that you couldn’t be in business without the expense – more or less, it needs to make good business sense.

You’ll need to retain excellent records with annotations about the expenses

Always check with a tax professional if you are unsure if something is or is not deductible. Call IRS during tax season or check out the interactive tool at 

 https://www.irs.gov/uac/Interactive-Tax-Assistant-%28ITA%29-1  or H&R Block

Deduction Categories: (remember to err on the side of caution when it comes to the IRS and only deduct the business portion of items you are claiming.)

Corporation incorporates fees. Advertising & Marketing (Head Shots, promotional materials, advertising spots on other blogs, business cards, signs, printable, flyers, ad spots, newspaper spots or advertisements, Logo design etc.)Trademark and copyright fees,  Depreciation (Long-Term Assets Long-term assets are things you purchase for your business that will last for more than one year,(must be used more than 50% for business such as computers, office equipment, cars, and machinery. Long-term assets you buy before your business begins are not considered part of your start-up costs. Instead, you must treat these purchases like any other long-term asset you buy after your business begins: You must either depreciate the item over several years or deduct the cost in one year under Section 179. However, you can’t take depreciation or Section 179 deductions until after your business begin.)Office Supplies (Tax software, Accountant, Tax prep etc, paper, printing, ink, pens etc.) Postage, PO Box, Materials and supplies to create a post that makes you money (including shipping if applicable), Prizes, Gifts and giveaways. If you make the gift you can only deduct the cost of creating the item, for example I make bath salts and sell them on etsy. I can deduct the cost; let’s say 2 dollars that I paid to make the bath salts. NOT the full retail value. Vehicle, travel and meal expenses (blogger meetups, small business seminars and blogging conferences) any sort of Education related to your business (including but not limited to eBooks, courses, seminars etc.) ANYTHING Downloaded for business purposes, Costs and expenses to run your blog (Domain name, Webhost, Logo Design, Web templates, WordPress plugins and costs, Cost of contractor to help you, Internet Fees and Phone Fees as well as cell phone fees. If you use the cell for personal you figure a percentage to deduct for business. Let’s say you pay 100 a month and use your phone 50% for business then you can deduct $50 a month for cell phone fees as well as additional app charges related to your business. Digital Cameras, Design Software, memory cards or other peripherals and or equipment. Dues and Subscriptions, Paid websites for subscriber newsletters etc like mailchimp,

Equipment, Material and supplies used solely for the purpose of creating an engaging blog post; here are some examples: http://www.taxgirl.com

• Your blog is a baking blog and you make a full course meal, soup to nuts. Is it deductible? Perhaps the cost of the sourdough bread is … but not the rest of the meal.
• Your blog is a baking blog and you make three loaves of sourdough bread. Is deductible? Probably the cost of one loaf – that’s the part you needed for your review, right? But not three. The other two are likely to be eaten for personal use and are not deductible.
• Your blog is a general food blog and you make lasagna for your entire family. Is it deductible? Maybe. If your blog is a “family food blog”, then perhaps the family-sized portion is deductible. If your blog focuses solely on a niche, like healthy eating or cooking with noodles, then only the portion attributable to you, for the purposes of testing, is deductible.

Business Use of Your Home' Not a fan of this. It’s a red flag for IRS If you use part of your home for your business, you may be able to deduct expenses for items such as mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation. To qualify you must meet the following criteria:

a) The business part of your home must be used exclusively and regularly for your trade or business. However, there are exceptions for daycare facilities or storage of inventory/product samples.

b) The business part of your home must be:

- The principal place of business, or

- A place where you meet or deal with patients, clients, or customers in the normal course of your business, or

Some Apps that I came across to help you are (Software programs Quickbooks, Peachtree, Quicken)

AndroMoney FREE

Expense Manager by Bishinews FREE

Concur

Small Business Accounting Pro FREE

Daily Expense FREE

Book Keeper Accounting and Invoice FREE

Real Quick I was asked “If I am sent a product for review is this taxable” Right now there is not a lot of information from the IRS indicating the specifics on this. If you make money generated because of doing this review my answer will be yes you may need to count it as income. Sorry.

 Click on Arrow For printable

Full Notes(Click On Arrow)

 

(Romans 7:19) "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice."

Wally Tedrick

(Romans 7:19)
"For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice."

Ponder those words for a moment...confusing yet true. Romans 7 is a fascinating chapter on struggling with sin. Paul writes openly about the war within himself, the battle between the sinful flesh and the spirit. “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:19,24).

Every one of us struggles with sin every day, and the sooner we admit that, the better off we’ll be.
If you say you don’t struggle with the flesh, you are deceived and deluded. The Bible clearly states, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

When you come to Christ, the guilt you have is taken away in Him. But because of that, those "new" in Christ might think they're never going to struggle anymore with problems, sin, and temptation (in fact, some "seasoned" Christians fall into that trap as well). In reality, when you accept Christ, you become a target of the devil because you have now defected from the devil's camp! Before you were saved, he had you on his side, and he lied and told you, “Get ‘spiritual,’ get ‘nice,’ do anything you want but don't come to Jesus.” And he and his demons surely did not give you a standing ovation when you said, “Lord Jesus, be my savior.” You defected and now you’re a target. They’re after you. When you come to grips with the truth of the continuing struggle with sin, you may say, “What do I do now?”

Some people resort to legalism. They say, “I’ll keep all the Law and the Commandments. I’ll do everything good.” They try to uphold holiness, and at the same time they become very critical of people who don’t do everything right and perfect. They are like the Pharisees of Jesus' day. And just as Jesus said to them: "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me." (Matthew 15:7-8).
Legalism is like being tied to a block of cement that drags you down. Legalism doesn’t help free you from sin. It doesn't bring you closer to Christ, and you feel condemned all the time...frustrated, miserable and completely lacking in the freedom that Christ wants for us.

Others decide they’ll go it alone, or practice the “do-it-yourself” brand of Christianity. They say, “I’ll set my own rules, pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I can conquer it. I can deal with it. I have more perseverance than most.” And these people, too, are very frustrated and miserable. Let me make this clear..NO amount of strength within ourselves can conquer sin! That strength can only come from Christ!
Paul finally comes to the place where he cries out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25). That’s the key! You cannot do it alone!

One of the truths of Romans is that there is nothing within ourselves that is of any value to procure our own right standing before God. Paul came to this truth: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). C.S. Lewis put it very simply: “No amount of bad eggs can create a good omelet.”

So no matter how many good things you think you see in yourself, obeying the Law and self-effort do not conquer sin. Only the power of Jesus Christ conquers sin. Paul’s words should be our prayer EVERY day: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.

Copyright: Marcia Pope & The bible

The Bible tells us we have all been given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), and that faith comes from God. Faith is believing in God and trusting in Him regardless of the circumstances or influences around us. Sometimes we find this easy to do but many times life's dilemmas can cause our faith to weaken or fail, especially during times of sadness, loneliness, sickness, pain, depression, deprivation or fear. Although it may be hard to understand, without these struggles our faith in God would never increase. If your faith level has been low lately here are some suggestions that may be of help to you.

1) Stop worrying.
You were not created to worry and fret. The Lord wants you to be at peace. Worrying will not solve your problems. It will only drain you. God invites you to cast your burdens upon Him (Psalms 55:22). He not only cares for you, but He is far better at handling the weight of your problems. He will not abandon you in the midst of your struggles for He has promised to never leave or forsake you (Heb. 13:5).

2) Learn to depend on God for everything.
It is our habit to depend on ourselves, our jobs, our friends, our money-everything and everyone except God. Develop the habit of making God your priority, not an after-thought. Talk to Him about what you need at the very moment you need it and trust Him to provide an answer. Your faith will increase as you depend more on Him and less on yourself. Phil 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

3. Discover God's will for your life.
God has a plan for your and a work for you to accomplish. In your selfishness you may inadvertently moving in a direction He does not want you to go. Surrendering to Him may seem unnatural to you at first but His Spirit will guide you if you will allow Him to. Step forward in faith to work with Him, not against Him. Be active in serving Him by serving others. Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

4) Learn to listen to His voice.
Our lives are frantically busy, noisy and demanding. You must make time to listen for His voice. It is in moments of prayerful stillness that the heart is encouraged and strengthened. Then, with renewed faith, you are ready to move forward in obedience to the Lord's commands. "Be still", He says, "and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10).
Rev 3:22 (NIV) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

5) Practice patience.
Patience is a profound faith-builder. Few of us exercise enough patience. We live in a world where we expect to be instantly gratified, so understandably we expect that answers to our prayers should also come promptly. However, God is not bound by time. He answers our prayers in a way that is best for us, at the time that He knows will do us the most good. We must have faith to know He is working even though it may seem like the answers come slowly. God is working to change us from the inside, and this takes time. Be patient and in time He will reveal the answers to prayer you so anxiously seek. James 5:7-8 Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Galatians 6:9
And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men. Psalm 37:7-9
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret, it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.

6) Claim God's promises.
The Bible contains countless promises to cover every situation. God keeps His word. Memorize the promises that have special meaning for you. Speak them aloud whenever you can and claim them in your prayers. They are a firm support for your faith to lean on. 2 Peter 1:4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Isaiah 40:29-31

He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:37-39 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Proverbs 1:33 But all who listen to me will live in peace,
untroubled by fear of harm.”

John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The promises of God are powerful and awesome to grasp. I pray that these scriptures about God’s promises were helpful to you today.

7) Give thanks.
Our Father delights to hear us give thanks. You can always find something to be thankful for. This is why the apostle Paul says, "In all things, give thanks" (1 Thes. 5:18)), not just the good things, but all things. Learn to give thanks even for trials and disappointments because you never know what blessings such things as this can bring.

8) Look for the lessons that the Lord is teaching you.
Our life here on earth is a school and the challenges you experience each day can often be looked at as another lesson. He will only lead you into those experiences that will increase your faith, and indeed your faith will increase as you acknowledge these lessons and grow from them. Each time you past one test He will lovingly but certainly bring you to the next.

Use every opportunity you can to exercise your faith and as you do it will increase. Remember that Jesus is the Author and Finisher of your faith (Heb. 12:2). He will not stop working with you until your faith has been perfected.

Sources:

Personal experience

All Scripture references taken from the Holy Bible - King James Version
Author: Marcia Pope RN

A thankful heart prepares the way.. A Thankful Heart * A key to overflowing joy!

Copyright: Great Bible Studies

The Lord has shown me recently how important and vital a thankful heart is to our spiritual health. This sounds very elementary, but there is much to be learned here! This teaching was broken up into three parts because it is so long:
1. How God sees a thankful heart & Even when things fell apart
2. The seriousness of unthankfulness & Symptoms of an unthankful heart
3. How to become thankful

God has been prompting me to write this teaching for some time now, and now I know why! The Lord has revealed to me how a thankful heart can change the whole way you see life! It is a flood-gate opener to blessings, joy peace and all sorts of goodness. With thankful hearts, we can even touch the very heart of God, and King David even told us that when we approach God, enter into His gates with thankful hearts!
Psalms 100:4, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
I mean it when I say that developing a thankful heart can revolutionize the quality and enjoyment of one's life!

How God sees a thankful heart

Let's say that you had a grandson, and you went out and built him the best backyard playground in town. You spent thousands of dollars on it, and invested countless hours to put this together. When you're all done, you walk your grandson into the back yard to show him to new surprise. He first screams with excitement and then he cries because he thinks of how wonderful of a grandpa he has, and gives you the biggest hug you've ever received. Then for the next month, he can't stop playing in his new playground and continually thanks you up and down for such a wonderful gift. Wouldn't that make you feel good inside for blessing him in such a way? You would probably want to run out and do it all over again, just because he loved it so much and was so thankful for everything you did.

Now consider if you went through all that work and spend all that money, only to have your grandson go jump on the swing a few times and leave, and act as if you haven't invested a dime in it. Never once did he show any appreciation, or thankfulness for all you've done. Wouldn't that make you feel awful? Wouldn't that make it hard for you to continue blessing him in the future?

How do you think God feels, when He's done so much for us (He made us, gave us such wonderful bodies and minds, then when we messed up, He sent His son to die for us, etc.), and then we go throughout the day not even stopping to think about all He's done for us? We're too busy taking our children to the baseball game, watching TV, and countless other things... that we don't even stop to think about all God's done for us. How do you think that makes God feel? Do you think He gets overwhelmed with joy, and can't wait to send us more blessings? If you were in His position, would you feel that way? Wouldn't you want your people to be thankful for the goodness and blessings you have showered upon them?

When we are thankful for the goodness of God in our lives, it touches the very heart of God and encourages Him to shower even more blessings upon us. A thankful heart is truly a floodgate to the blessings and goodness of God in our lives!
Psalms 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Even when things fell apart!

A couple really neat stories in the Bible stand out to me when the subject of thankfulness is brought up. One is when Paul and Silas were cast into prison, but instead of grumbling... can anybody tell me what they were upto? Let's see...
"And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them." (Acts 16:25)
Now if you ask me, few of us have circumstances like Paul and Silas had to complain about. But instead of complaining, they lifted their hands to the Lord with thankful hearts and began to sing praises! Why? Because they took what Jesus said literally when He told them...

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (Matthew 5:11)
They were taking God's Word seriously, and praising God despite the physical (here and now) circumstances... shouldn't we be doing the same thing today when things turn black around us?

So what happened to Paul and Silas and their reservations at the local prison? Let's find out...
"And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed." (Acts 16:26)

Their praises during that time touched the very heart of God, and as a result, the very ground the prison was on shook with an earthquake and they were loosed!! All I can say is... WOW! I guess you could say that their singing out in praises in the face of despair touched the very heart of God! My question to you is, would God not be touched by our praises today? Would He not do the same thing for us today that He did for them?
Another powerful story of thankfulness is the story of Joseph. God gave him visions of his brothers bowing before him, but on the earthly plane he was sold into slavery. Did he once complain? Did he once turn his back on God? He was even offered sex by the wife of Potiphar, and turned his back on sin for the sake of doing what was right! So then what happened? She lied about him and had him threw into prison! Come now, how many of us are in such positions? This man was a beautiful man of God, putting His walk with God above everything in life, and yet he was sold into slavery, then cast into prison? If anybody has a place to grumble, I think it ought to be him! But he had his mind so much on the goodness and promises of God, that it didn't even phase him! What happened? God promoted him to an extremely high position in the government, and was put in charge of the food (the #1 need of the land) during a famine!

The seriousness of unthankfulness

An unthankful heart is found in somebody who doesn't appreciate the things that God has given them. Each one of us have been given more than we'll ever know, so there are no excuses for God's children to be unthankful! Unthankfulness is looking at the negative, despite the positive.
God's Word even tells us how people can be given over to homosexuality and all sorts of uncleanliness because they were unthankful:
Romans 1:21,26-27, "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened... For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet."

Symptoms of an unthankful heart

People who are unthankful will naturally have negative personalities, find it easy to complain about little things, or easily become moody. Their minds aren't deeply rooted and grounded in a positive or thankful pattern of thinking, therefore when something comes up that pushes their buttons, they quickly forget about the goodness that God has blessed them with, and begin to complain and grumble in their hearts. This brings about a negative/pessimistic personality or mood. This explains the Israelites when they would go about complaining, even after God has delivered them from the hands of their enemies. In Numbers, we are told of how the Israelites were grumbling over the manna that God was giving them every morning when they woke up, so finally God gave them meat alright... so much that they were vomiting it out of their noses!

Numbers 11:18-20, "And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?"

They were unthankful for what God hath done for them when He brought them out of Egypt, and complained about the food that He was miraculously providing for them. He even said that through complaining, they had despised the Lord their God!! As a result, He gave them all the meat they could handle until it was coming out of their noses and was loathsome unto them.

Unthankful people are known to be bitter or unforgiving towards themselves, God or other people. In Matthew 18, we see a picture of the unthankful servant who was forgiven of a great debt, but could not forgive his fellow servant of a much smaller debt. If a person is bitter or hold things against others, then it shows us that they are unthankful for what God has done for them.

Matthew 18:32-35, "Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."
If we don't want to be called "O thou wicked servant" on judgment day, then it is a 100% necessity that we forgive those who have offended us. The Bible is even clear that if we don't love one another (and bitterness is proof of hatred), then we are abiding in spiritual death:

1 John 3:14, "...He that loveth not his brother abideth in death."
Unthankful people are always looking down upon themselves or suffer from low self-esteem. God's Word tells us that we have been created in the very image of God, and knit together by the hands of God in our mother's womb, and when we see ourselves as failures, we are in turn being unthankful for the person that God has made us. If we see ourselves as ugly, then we are claiming that God's creation (our bodies) are ugly. Would you walk up to God and dare tell Him that something He made was ugly? I should hope not! But that's what we do every time we look at ourselves in the mirror and see ourselves as ugly. The same is true with our minds and intelligence. Despite the vast amount of technology we have today, to create a computer processor chip that will do millions of transactions in mere seconds, yet weighs no more than a quarter, there's nothing that man has created that will even come close to the complexity of the human brain. Far too often, we take lightly the wonderful and dynamic gift that God has given us when we consider ourselves dumb or less than brilliant! Each one of us were created in the very image of God, and gifted in many ways, and it is a crying shame when we refer to ourselves as anything less than downright amazing!

Unthankful people are never satisfied with what they have been given, but always want more. This is an obvious sign of an unthankful heart. Greed is a sin that causes us to become unthankful for the things that God has blessed us with. When we become greedy, we are thinking about things we don't have, rather than things we do have.

Unthankful people don't take care of the things God has given them. Those who are thankful for the good things that God has given them will take good care of those things, whether it be their mind, car, body, spouse, children, job, etc. Taking good care of the things which God has given us shows Him that those things mean something to us and we are thankful for them. Not that we ever should worship the things God gives us, but we should take good care of them.

All of these symptoms should not be found in our lives, but if they exist (and I doubt many of us are immune!), there is something we can do about it. Develop a thankful heart! So the next question is....

How do you become thankful? 

Whatever you think about throughout the day, will affect your whole personality and mood. If you spend your day thinking about golf, you will become a golf fanatic. If you spend your time thinking about traveling, you'll want to always be going somewhere or doing something... you will spend your day daydreaming about being somewhere on vacation.

If you spend your day thinking about the negative things around you and things you can complain about, you will develop a pessimistic personality. It will pull you down, and since pessimism and optimism are opposites, whichever one you allow to feed your mind will eventually push the other one farther and farther away.
One of the vital steps to developing a thankful personality, is to meditate (that is to think about often) the things that you have in your life to be thankful for. Make a list of the things God has done for you, and keep those things on your mind throughout the day. It may take a little more work at first, especially if your mind is programmed to think negatively. This process is the tearing down of strongholds and the renewing of your mind as God's Word tells us:

Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

How do we renew our minds? Do we renew them by sitting in church, daydreaming about other things? No, we renew our minds by feeding and meditating on uplifting things (blessings in our lives) and the truth in God's Word. A pastor can help feed us the truth is he or she is preaching the Word of God as the Word was meant to be preached, but it is upto us to take what we hear and allow our minds to feast upon it. Philippines tells us what we are to set our minds upon... which includes the things that are uplifting, lovely, of good report, etc.

Philippines 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Why are newborn Christians so on fire for God? Because their newborn experience is fresh on their mind... they think about it all the time, and since it's a glorious thing to think about, they are naturally all fired up over their new found relationship with God! The same is true when a person first comes into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They are on cloud nine, because they are meditating or thinking often about the great gift they have been given! The reason so many Christians lose their fire, is because they've stopped thinking about the wonderful gifts they've been given. We as Christians should continue in this excitement and think often about our relationship with God and the blessings He's given us. If we do that in our everyday lives, we will come into perfect peace:
Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."

My challenge to you is to stop and ask yourself, "What have I been thinking about for the past week?" If you want to change the way you perceive things, then you'll have to change the way you think. If you want to develop a thankful heart, then you'll need to meditate and think about the good things God has blessed you with. Even if it seems you have nothing to be thankful for, you have been blessed far beyond those living in the OT era, because of what Jesus has done for YOU! Healing, prosperity, joy, peace, and deliverance are all parts of what Jesus has done for YOU! God's Word tells us that ear hath not heard, nor eye seen the great things that lie ahead for those who love God! Every one of us have a LOT to be thankful for!
1 Corinthians 2:9, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."