Gratitude

Gratitude

"The state of being grateful, thankful" 

noun

"the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful: He expressed his gratitude to everyone on the staff."

When was the last time you were exceptionally thankful? 

Today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year? 

When was the last time you were exceedingly grateful for something or some event in your life that originally you were not?

( you had a relationship breakup and then married someone else, or you were fired from one job but then got another job, or you experienced some deep pain but learnt a valuable lesson)

"Sing to The Lord for he as done marvellous things"

"Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust." (Psalms 103:1-14 NLT)

Is it a one off or an intermittent thing? 

I would contend it's something that we need to strive for as a constant. 

A pastor who spoke at our church some years back was telling the story of a friend of his that had many many physical ailments including not being able to walk, as he was in a wheelchair, and he started to complain about one of them, but just as he did, he started to thank God for each ailment he had by trying to see if he could name each ailment he had with each letter of the alphabet, he got stuck at Q and he couldn't think of an ailment he had that started with Q.... and then he "kicked himself", because has was a quadriplegic!! 

You know it really hit me his story because it represented to me so much of my apathy, glass half empty tendency, complaining, victimology mindset that i have. 

I thought, gosh Henshall, at least you have kids to get angry and annoyed at, heaps of married couples can't even have kids, at least I have a job that pays well to service a mortgage, heaps of others can't even get a job, at least I have a wife that works and can get paid well on the weekend while others are struggling to make ends meet, at least I have parents that want to be involved in my children's lives while other grandparents haven't even met their grandchildren because of family ructions, at least I can run with all my aches and pains while others can't even exercise, at least I have teeth to have a tooth ache in the first place!, at least I had a father even though he committed suicide just before my second birthday, others don't even know who their father was, at least we have a stable government and can pay taxes to get decent services and safety as other nations can't trust a single judiciary or are being persecuted and exiled, at least I have my faculties to be able to get angry and annoyed whereas others are suffering all kinds of mental and physiological ailments. And on and on it went....

And there is the big one: THANK YOU GOD THAT YOU "SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME!", THANK YOU THAT YOU "TURNED TO ME AND HEARD MY CRY, THAT YOU SET MY FEET UPON A ROCK AND MADE MY FOOTSTEPS FIRM", "THAT YOU LOVED ME SO MUCH THAT YOU DIED FOR ME"

Here's the flip-side, I have a work colleague who is not nasty or outwardly rude, but I have never heard him say thank you or show any genuine sense of gratitude or graciousness for the effort and work others do to support him. When he speaks of general issues, particularly to do with markets, governments or community issues, he is consistently negative, derogatory or pointing out mistakes.  I have never heard him give praise or appreciation for these areas. 

Now to me I hold that up against myself and say, boy, let that not be me, go overboard, be extravagant with praise and gratitude, pat people on the back and consistently tell them what a great job they are doing and thank them. 

Gratitude is more than saying thank you, it is a spiritual mindset.  If I am ungrateful, I have a poverty mindset, a miserly spiritual paradigm - is that God's mindset? 

"I know the plans I have for you, not to harm, but to give you a hope and future" 

If God has allowed a bad thing to happen, then "all things work together for good for those that love God".  Gents, I so need to hear this discussion today to remind me again and again, gratitude is God's way.