Gratitude Is A Choice
Gratitude Is A Choice
Finding myself drifting off dreaming, sipping my coffee, I began thinking about how grateful I am.
Grateful for the little things like the cool crisp morning air. Grateful for the not so little things, Steve’s and my health and our relationship is growing as each year passes. Grateful that in the good times and the not so great God has never left me on my own. He is a constant in my life.
I am grateful.
I love the book by Ann Voskamp, 10,000 Gifts. The book is about gratitude, the need to have a grateful heart in the difficult seasons of our lives as well as the wonderfully scrumptious days of love and laughter. Ann wrote about having a gratitude journal. It is a treasured tool for many that I know.
There is something essential about taking the time to write the words of gratitude down. Writing makes those thoughts tangible. Acknowledging: the good; being grateful for the challenges, and then there are the things we treasure. Grateful to see God’s fingerprints all over our lives. Knowing He is there whether it is walking side by side along the sand with the Lord or when there is only one set of footprints in the sand when He is carrying us.
But there is an enemy of our hearts. His focus is to steal, kill, and destroy, and He’s good at it.
If He can’t kill us, he does his level best to sideline us, steal our joy and purpose. Satan tries to attack our standing with God and those around us, keeping us isolated, adding a little despair and pain. Stealing our hope is a great prize for Satan.
But there is an unlikely weapon that Satan can’t defeat.
Gratitude.
When our focus is on God and understanding really who God is and our relationship to Him, we become grateful. When we come to understand that in the good or in the devastatingly tough times, God will provide what we need to get through to the other side, we have a choice though. We have to determine where we will focus our thoughts, emotions, actions, and energy.
When we choose to find the things we are grateful for, it changes the trajectory of our thinking, ultimately altering our emotions and actions.
When we are determined to find what we can be grateful for and list them on paper, we have a history lesson we can remember. I have looked back in my journals to my gratitude list and am amazed at the times of great struggle that I came through. Back then those challenges seemed like mountains. Now they look like foothills. I am grateful.
I have to say although I don’t want to go through them again, with God walking me through those places and sometimes carrying me, I am better for them. I am a different person than I could have been because of how I viewed the situation.
Being grateful to God and the people He had traveling through my life with me at those key times gave me the ability to be “better instead of bitter.”
That is the key.
Satan would like us to be defeated, but gratitude provides healing and strength. Gratitude determines where our eyes land: God and those around us or us.
Then there is the phenomenon of nature in all its raw beauty. Nature at its best and some of its brutal realities being grateful to simply enjoy that which we did not create. The mountains, the rivers, the ocean (my personal favorite), and flowers of every color and strain. The list, when we allow ourselves, is endless to ponder the wonders of it all.
Gratitude takes us outside of ourselves and allows us to see there is a bigger picture than ourselves. We look at those around us. We are able to see the needs of others and perhaps how we can bring hope and encouragement to them. Perhaps a smile, hot meal, or just time to be heard. It’s like “paying it forward.” Then they have the same opportunity to help someone else.
There are times I’ll do something for someone, and when they ask what they can do or what I need, I say: “Pass it on, do the same for someone else.” It’s like putting an extra tool in their toolkit they didn’t have: Teaching some of the nuts and bolts of being grateful.
Life is not always easy, I understand. But it’s not what happens to us that means much, it’s what we do about what happens that determines everything. Satan has a lot of power, but he does not have the power to determine my response. I have the freedom to choose. It was bought at a price, Jesus gave it all that we would have “the freedom to choose.”
I am grateful.
God gives us a bevy of tools and resources to traverse this life with strength, peace, and joy. One of those tools is Gratitude. King David, who knew great success and tragedy in his life, says this:
“Accept my grateful thanks and teach me Your desires.” Psalm 11:108 TLB (The Living Bible)
He was known for his gratitude to God, his Heavenly Father. He danced and sang in thanksgiving in the streets. He allowed everyone to participate. He made gratitude contagious, rich in experience, and full of joy.
Some days a thankful heart is easier to unearth than others. Gratitude is a choice. It is intentional. It is a determination to be better and not bitter.
Today can you start your gratitude list? Try writing just five things. And then; five more. You will be amazed when you do.
