Self Growth Thoughts
On November 21st, 2018 / by Glen Elliott
Gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday. Why? The turkey is great. I love family time. There’s usually great football. But the best part is the focus on gratitude. I’m convinced that gratitude is a lost spiritual discipline in American Christianity. There are too few of us that make gratitude a daily practice and choice. If […]
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On November 21st, 2018 / by Glen Elliott | Subscribe
Gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday. Why? The turkey is great. I love family time. There’s usually great football. But the best part is the focus on gratitude. I’m convinced that gratitude is a lost spiritual discipline in American Christianity. There are too few of us that make gratitude a daily practice and choice. If we were to rediscover the art of gratitude, we’d experience a transformation of our attitude that would result in continual satisfaction and contentment.
But our natural response to life is to complain. It has always been that way. The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years because they just kept complaining against God. Why? They focused on their hardship rather than in all the ways God had and was providing for them. We’ll always have hardships and we’ll always have much to be grateful about. We get to choose which we’ll focus on.
The fact is that we have become experts at complaining – out loud and in our heads. As long as we are ungrateful, we can’t help but complain. And the more we complain, the more we focus on what we lack and find even more to complain about. It’s a cycle and a trap. The very act of complaining and being discontent keeps us focused on what we wish was different. And that ingratitude which leads to complaining interrupts our experience of God’s goodness and grace.
I recently read about a pastor who has A.L.S. – an incurable, debilitating disease. Most of what he used to be able to do, he can no longer do. But he recounted how grateful he was that he could still walk to the bathroom. While he can’t use his right hand, he’s grateful he can still use his left hand to feed himself. Daily he chooses to focus on what he can do rather than complain about what he’s lost. He said his gratitude helps him see God’s goodness and grace in his ordeal.
I’ve tried to make gratitude a planned part of my day. I even have a chair in my backyard that I’ve dedicated to use for my Bible reading and for gratitude. I’ve found that the practice of gratitude changes my attitude. Studies have shown that folks who regularly practice gratitude are healthier both physically and emotionally and a lot happier. I’ve found that the more I intentionally focus on what I’m grateful for the more I discover what I have to be grateful about. The well for gratitude is endless!
And most of all, God commands that we be thankful (Here are just a few scriptures – Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 3:15; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). So choose to be thankful. May your Thanksgiving holiday be the beginning of a season of gratitude that lasts long beyond the holiday.
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On May 25th, 2022 / by Glen Elliott
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