If you have strengths such as love, kindness, hope, creativity and 20 other positive powerhouses, you will still be missing the single best predictor of good relationships and emotional well being as reported in the Scientific American journal….that being GRATITUDE.
We did not create ourselves, or our world. We did not get where we are today all alone on our own. So living in gratitude reveals our truth. It’s living honestly giving credit where credit is due.
“Gratitude is a way of seeing that alters our gaze.”– Robert A. Emmons
Living in gratitude means that we take nothing for granted. Life owes us nothing as we acknowledge all good that we have has been given.
Our good gifts have been given to us on loan one day at a time by a very generous God. We haven’t earned them. They’re not owed to us. We have no title to them. They are simply gifts, given not because of our goodness but because God is a father who wants the best for his children.
So how can we not be grateful? How can we stop gratitude from welling up inside us? We must give thanks. Our heart insists on it.
How do we thank a father who already has everything? Pretty words won’t do it and we can’t send flowers! All we have are his gifts, and that’s our clue.
The only thanks that God really wants is that we use our gifts well, and share them with one another as generously as God shared them with us.
Thankfulness is ever so much more than just words. It’s a whole way of living, affirming all that is good and its source. Living in gratitude is when we realize the good and the credit that others bring about. Some things that we cannot do for ourselves.
It starts with our marveling at the vastness of God’s kindness, and slowly reshapes our hearts into the image and likeness of our generous God.
We become like God by doing what God does. Sharing gifts reshapes hearts.
We are never too old, too young, or too rich or too poor to live in gratitude. We create a positive ripple effect through every area of our lives satisfying our desire for happiness, peace, contentment and wholeness.
So let us live with grateful hearts that see our gifts with joy, and share them with delight!
