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Being Grateful

Sometimes in the give and take of everyday life I get grumpy and frustrated and I forget how blessed I am.

When I have some time to think honestly about these grumpy and frustrated moments it bothers me because the truth is that I am genuinely thankful for the wonderful life God has given me and I want to nurture a heart and a life which expresses authentic gratitude.

Most of the people I know—most of the people who will read this post—are extraordinarily blessed. What I mean is if we were to consider many of our life circumstances in light of the circumstances of a large percentage of people in the world, we are blessed with significant advantages and comforts in comparison.

I don’t raise this point in order to make us feel guilty, I raise this point in order to remind us to be thankful.

When I see in myself or others—those of us who have much—an attitude of ungratefulness it disappoints me. And to be painfully frank I feel like I’m seeing too much ungratefulness from people who should be incredibly thankful. Again, I see this ungratefulness in me, too, sometimes. So please understand, I’m not trying to pretend I stand above the fray as a beacon of perfection.

(By the way, I just looked up “fray” and it is a real word. And the dictionary says it is frequently used by people who are close to being beacons of perfection.)

It is interesting to know studies on happiness have found that being thankful tends to promote happiness. In other words, rather than thinking: “If I feel happy then I will be thankful about it.” It actually works better this way: “If I will cultivate an honest heart of gratitude happiness will follow.”

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

It Is Important To Be Grateful!

I’ve had several conversations over the past couple of weeks in which the discussion very naturally turned to gratitude. I didn’t suggest the topic or force the topic it simply came up on its own.

When the topic arose, my friends communicated this basic message to me: “I’m grateful for certain things in my life.”

I recognize this to be a very good attitude on the part of my friends. In fact, in recent years there has been serious academic research on the subject of happiness and it is now known that being grateful increases a person’s happiness.

Want to be happier? Be grateful for the good things you already have in your life.

Gratitude improves happiness because gratitude involves intentionally noticing and acknowledging good, positive, beneficial things in our lives. It makes sense that noticing good things in our lives would increase our happiness, doesn’t it? Some of the books on the subject of happiness even recommend keeping a gratitude journal as a specific action a person could take to increase happiness.

Even when I have difficulties and challenges going on in my life, I do not have to think too hard to come up with many legitimate reasons for being grateful. I suspect that is true for you, too.

Most of us are very blessed. Have you noticed?

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18