There are many things to be grateful for everyday. But gratitude doesn’t always freely flow from our lips. And it’s not that we’re not thankful, we must just practice the discipline of gratitude.
We have the ability to make an impact for good in the world around us, to enjoy deep and rich relationships, drink deeply of beauty, contemplate the meaning of life, and even take our very next breath.
And the list could go on and on of things we’re grateful for.
But in our daily life it seems much easier to complain than to express a heartfelt thanks.
What we don’t have, our various struggles, and the unending social ills around us can all drown out the many gifts God has given us.
Gratitude then seems like a luxury or platitude that doesn’t fit into our current realities.
And we might fear that we’ve become truly ungrateful.
But more often than not we’re simply distracted. When negativity overwhelms us or the relentless drive keeps us on autopilot, we don’t slow down enough to consider what we’re actually grateful for.
And this is where the discipline of gratitude can help.
As a discipline we make the intentional choice to express thanks even when we don’t necessarily feel like it.
This is not faking it. It’s simply not allowing ourselves to stay so distracted that we don’t express the true thankfulness already in our hearts.
And, to be sure, the more we pay attention the more our heart of gratefulness will likely grow.
Waiting for it to flow spontaneously might keep us on a negative cycle – blinded to the abundance of good God has already blessed us with.
Make giving thanks a tradition – a ritual that disciplines the heart into its fullest expressions of gratitude.
Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash
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