An Attitude of Gratitude

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Most days, all I have to do is look out my living room window or sit on my front porch to observe all of the biodiversity in the photos above. But I’m not always appreciative of the beauty before me, nor am I always mindful of the Creator of that variety of life. Being truly thankful is one characteristic that needs improving in my life. I need to be more thankful to my God and Creator; I need to be more thankful to my husband; I need to be more thankful to my family; I need to be more thankful to my friends. There isn’t anything in my life (or yours) that could be made worse by being more thankful! Someone once said, “Salt is what ruins the mashed potatoes when it’s left out.”  Maybe we could use the same type of negative definition to say “Gratitude is what ruins life when it is left out.”  Romans 1:21 says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  

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I’ve never experienced homelessness, true hunger, persecutions for my beliefs, or debilitating illnesses or injuries.  I do thank God for His many blessings, but I feel that I take them for granted far too often. I’ve heard it said that some of the most appreciative people around are those who have little material wealth, and I think I understand how that could be true.  I’ve never lived without the physical comforts and safety to which I’m accustomed. I wasn’t a Jew during the Holocaust. I didn’t live through the Rwandan genocide. I didn’t live through the Great Depression. I’m not living in fear of attacks by chemical weapons in Syria. I have not been a victim of human trafficking. I have not faced a gunman on a trip to my local Walmart, nor have I suffered any number of other horrible circumstances I could mention in this country or others.   I remember when I visited my grandparents as a child, I thought it strange that in their bathroom closet was a bag of soap slivers – you know, when the bar gets so small that it’s hard to use without it falling to pieces. I guess they were saving those soap slivers for hard times. They weren’t going to let anything be wasted. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not asking for hard times to come my way, but I just wonder if I would be more genuinely thankful for my blessings if they did.  So, I guess this post today is really for me, but maybe there are others who have this struggle, too!

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I can only imagine what anyone who lives everyday facing circumstances similar to those previously mentioned would give to have the scenery and the peace and comfort I find from my front porch.  I think I need to read the words in Psalm 100:1-5 every single day to remind me to have the attitude of gratitude – even for (or especially for) the most ordinary of days!

Sometimes I feel that I need to pray for my eyes to be opened, as Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened in 2 Kings 6:17 – opened so that I can truly see and be thankful for my many, many blessings. If you want to read the whole context of Elisha’s prayer, read 2 Kings 6:8-20. Random statement alert! I’m one of those people “lucky” enough to be allergic to poison ivy. Whenever I mow the yard, I usually see poison ivy in different places, and I know I probably run over some with the mower.  Once, while mowing, I tried to figure out how I could be thankful to God for poison ivy! All I could come up with was that if I was itching and scratching from poison ivy, it meant I had been able to be outside and enjoy all the other beauty in God’s creation.  I’ll have to work on being thankful for spiders later, but I can say that I am very thankful that spiders can’t fly! Well, that may be taking thankfulness a little too far, but I think I can be grateful for the lawn that needs mowing – because it means I have a home. Or, be thankful for big piles of laundry – because it means loved ones are near.  My husband has been saying for a few years now that he’s thankful he “gets” to go to work – because it means he has the physical ability and health to do so. I just want to be continuously aware of and thankful for everything that God provides for me and for all of us.  

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Besides having difficulty at times in recognizing my blessings for which to be thankful, I think I’m also guilty of not sacrificing time, effort, and energy to really show my thankfulness for Christ’s death on the cross and my hope of eternal salvation.  And those are the biggest things for which we should thank God each and every day! If you remember my post from a couple of weeks ago, God deserves our best, and, if we are living our best lives for him, I think that is the most powerful way to show our thankfulness to Him.

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Before I close this post, I’d like to share an experience from Sunday, for which I am very grateful. Periodically, my husband is called upon to conduct a worship service at an assisted living center near us. As part of his duties, he presents a short lesson, offers prayers, and leads the residents in a few songs. There are usually 8-12 residents in attendance, and their ages probably average in the upper eighties. I know that a few of them are over 95. As we were preparing to sing, one refused a song book, stating “I can’t see the words.” One declared, “I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know all the words.” One requested a song that had been on his mind. One didn’t want a book because he couldn’t sing anyway. But he said, “I’m a good listener though.” And so we began to sing. As I sang along with everyone, I also listened. I listened with thankfulness, and I heard the most beautiful sound imaginable – the sound of decades of life and experiences, of service to God and thankfulness for His promises – pouring from the depths of their hearts. Did we all sing in tune? No. Did we all sing with the same tempo? No. Did we all sing the same words? No. But in that discord was the most harmonious, glorious sound I’ve ever heard – all because those men and women sang with gladness and thankfulness in their hearts, and I listened with thankfulness in mine.

So, be thankful for your blessings and the beauty of your surroundings on your good days, your ordinary days, and your bad days, and live in a way that shows an attitude of gratitude to your heavenly Father and others around you. Pray for me to be able to do the same!