“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
We are in the month of Thanksgiving. If we don’t think about being thankful any other time, surely we think about it now. If you’re like me and had a good, Southern upbringing, you probably learned to say “thank you” on a regular basis. You were even probably made to say it a few times when you really didn’t mean it, like when you got underwear or an ugly sweater for Christmas.
While saying “thank you” is nice, living a life of gratitude is so much more than just saying “thanks.” Gratitude changes our perspective about life and our posture in life. In order to have hearts and lives filled with gratitude, we have to change the way we think. We have to change our perspective.
We can’t always control how we feel, but we do control our thoughts. When we live a life of gratitude, we make conscious decisions to think about things that lead to feelings of thankfulness. When we begin to think thoughts that encourage thankfulness, we will then be more likely to act in ways that show we are thankful. When we are thinking thankful thoughts and acting in a thankful manner, then we are closer to living a life of gratitude.
A friend of mine named Adam quoted a friend of his on this subject. He said, “You’re going down the road. You can go jumping and singing or kicking and screaming, but you’re going down the road.”
Sometimes in life we are faced with really crappy circumstances. We may have a terrible job. Our kids may be rebellious. We may have lost a loved one. We may have received a bad diagnosis. The road we’re on is rocky and pitted with dangers. It stinks, but we have to go down it one way or the other. As Adam’s friend pointed out, the only choice we have is the attitude we don as we head out on our journey.
Our attitudes are created by how we think and act. Living a life of gratitude is living a life out of abundance instead of scarcity, but it’s more than looking at the jar as half full. It’s keeping an eternal perspective, focusing on our Lord and the things that are most important to Him. It’s remembering that whatever journey this life brings us, it’s just a journey; it’s not the destination.
Is it easy? Nope, not always. It’s not that we want to be ungrateful, it’s just that it’s our human nature to see the bad, the missing, the hurt above the rest. That’s why we have to be intentional. We have to choose to redirect our thoughts. We have to choose to act in ways that may sometimes go against our human nature. And we can trust that as we begin to take those steps, God will begin to change us from the inside out so that day-by-day it gets easier to be sincerely thankful for everything.
In what areas can you begin to practice gratitude today?