Choose Gratitude

Gratitude.  Thankfulness running in high gear.  Giving thanks for what we have, great or small.  Living with  mindful intent, noticing, experiencing and giving credit to the proper Source for everything ... while specifically listing them.  Having the desire to pass on that feeling to others.  Sharing.  Giving.  Spreading the goodness of that grateful essence.

In terms of faith, it means paying respect to the One who provided for me, but I have to have the vision to see the provision.  I have to learn to see the big picture as well as train myself to see the smallest brush strokes or pixels.

Gratitude is, in truth and in life, an attitude.  How we think about and accept what life brings us makes all the difference.  Thinking about what we have, our abilities, our work, our basic needs, the existence of other humans to offer us companionship, and keeping all of this in an attitude of  thankfulness makes gratitude part of our personality ... if we choose to accept it and cultivate it.  Feeling and giving gratitude means making a conscious choice.

The apostle, Paul, writes in 1 Thessalonians 5: 15-18 (emphasis added),

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always,  pray continually,  
give thanks in all circumstances; 
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I feel momentum building when I think of feeling grateful.  When I get into a groove while counting my blessings in my marriage and life,  gratitude flows so easily.  Why don't more people do this? It rocks -- it brings a euphoria, thinking of and thanking God for what I have, who I am, what I do and how I do it.  I give thanks for the possibility of the future, which I can't know, but He does.  I thank Him for preparing me for it in the now.

I thank Him for snow as it falls, for the sun when it shines and for the process that brings buds out in trees and flowers poking up through the earth.  I thank Him for the people He has brought into my life for their blessings, teachings and strengths.  I thank Him for knowledge, understanding and the ability to continue learning.  I thank Him for  modern medicine and for the positive uses of modern technology.  I thank Him for the examples of faith in others who inspire me, and for the feeling of wanting to follow in those inspirational footsteps to help guide my own path.  I thank Him for opportunities to share Him -- even for showing me when I have missed my chance.  I thank him for missed chances, because that means I have learned to recognize them more easily.  I thank Him for his blessings, his power, his grace and his comfort.

Then, a difficult situation comes along.
My gratitude sometimes flies south like a bird in late October, looking for sunnier circumstances.

My grasp of gratitude isn't as strong as I think it is, and that tells me I need to lean harder and practice giving thanks and adoration more often and with greater intent and always reach in the same direction when negative influences come along.  I need to train gratitude to stay with me, for it empowers me to pick up and sort the pieces of an accident, a failure or a large life implosion and move forward with less of the regret that comes with bad times and more of a "can do" attitude that gratitude provides.   Having gratitude helps me learn from the experience, to see that bending doesn't mean breaking and breaking doesn't mean the end.

I must train gratitude to sit and stay by giving praise often and more fervently than I do.  I need to remember that the good times are good because God has provided them.  If I train it to sit and stay, I will find that in difficult times I can train it to go and fetch ... to retrieve the good when it seems I can find none.

I need to remember that the good times will help me get through the bad ones.  Difficult times come along just as unannounced and unexpectedly as the good ones!   I must bank gratitude for an emergency, or it won't be there when I need it.

I also need to share it with others and praise it to God to help ensure that I don't let it fly when the nice weather turns.  When I speak it, share it, act it, I feel its staying power.  It won't fly so easily when it connects people, moments, memories, and my life experiences.

I must continually offer thanks to God in the good times and for the little things, looking deep into the details when I don't find lots of large, obvious praiseworthy items.  I need to see past the ornaments on the tree to the needles that hold the hook, and to the twigs that secure them to the branches, then on to the trunk that holds the branches in place, to the roots that grew the tree, all the way to the earth and the nutrients that helped grow and nurture it ... and where did all that come from anyway?  Connections.  That's gratitude.

Gratitude practice, for lack of a better term, can get started with this kind of chain-of-thought thankfulness.

Giving thanks for the beautiful gift your friend gave you.
Giving thanks for the thought behind the gift..
Giving thanks for the good job her husband has in these economic times.
Giving thanks that her husband reveres her place at home to care for him and their family.
Giving thanks for the friend's creative thinking in choosing the gift.
Giving thanks for her friendship.
Giving thanks for the memory of how she has blessed your life.
Giving thanks for the time she took your children when you had an emergency need.
Giving thanks for her generous spirit.
Giving thanks for what makes her different from you.

The more you link, the more you'll find.  Keep looking!

Mary Southerland, a Christian writer and speaker, writes in a "Girlfriends in God" devotional,

"God entrusts trials to us, giving us the opportunity to choose gratitude.'

Gratitude sits on a shelf, always one of our choices.  It sits alongside selfishness, victimization, discontent, complaining, doubt, fear, hatred, mockery and disbelief.  It also shares space on the shelf near joy, truth, peace, understanding, contentedness, trust, love, selflessness, belief and respect.

And yet, God entrusts us with trials, knowing we can grow toward him or shrink from him.

Our human hearts lean toward evil and selfishness, we are fallen humans.  We fell away from close communion with God when Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge an passed a portion to Adam, who didn't handily fend off her encouragement.  They missed showing gratitude for what God provided for them, and moved from having enough to wanting more.  We now have to train ourselves toward gratitude.  This makes a life-long struggle between fleshly wants and spiritual needs.

Choose gratitude.

To choose gratitude forces most of us to change our ways, get out of our rut of expectation and insistence that we deserve better.  Christ-likeness is a goal we will never completely reach here on earth and requires terrific amounts of change.  To live with gratitude means more focus on others, and some possible meetings with defeat, pain, hard work and persecution for doing it.  It sounds harsh, I know.  It's the reality of doing work for God.  When you set out to live with a mindset of gratitude, when you feel determined to change your attitude, Satan will challenge you through your experience in the world.  It's it His Word, with the following verses to illustrate:

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…. If they persecuted Me they will persecute you… for they do not know the One who sent Me.” John 15:19-21

Even so, when difficult experiences present themselves, you can thank God for:

• keeping you from falling to the temptation that will come -- mainly, the temptation to follow the world and its ways.  They're accepted by more people, and they seem so much easier, until you get lost in them
• helping you to focus on what's right and good, and finding others who work for that focus, too
• giving you strength, peace and patience to overcome life's trials
• letting you see the attack for what it is -- distraction from your goal -- like chocolate chip cookies staring at you as you work on changing your eating habits, that's Satan's attack on gratitude -- hitting you in your soft spot
• His presence always; that he will never leave or forsake you
• for moments of truth, beauty, goodness and hope that make gratitude seem easy
• for His forgiveness, His gift of eternal life through Christ, and His mercy

Choose gratitude.  Make the effort to find the silver lining in every cloud.  Thank Him for the small stuff and keep your heart in motion, always looking, always giving thanks.

Living a life of gratitude to God can change you, and in turn, can change other people as they witness your example in everyday life.