Elevate Your Attitude Of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. It celebrates no birth, no battle, and no anniversary of one of our national heros. It is essentially the celebration of the condition of the heart. It is a pilgrimage into one’s inner self looking for an attitude of gratitude.

It can and should morph from a holiday to a lifestyle. Most folks have about the same amount of good and bad things happen to them. We tend to think no one has it as bad as we. In reality optimists and pessimists are subject to the same pressures of life. I have known some good looking, intellectual, wealthy pessimists. Conversely, I have known some optimists who were living below the poverty line in poor health. They know what the expression “a sacrifice of thanksgiving” is all about. 

Let this holiday season motivate you to a new and elevated attitude of gratitude. Doesn’t it make you feel good to be thanked for something? Well, it does others also. If you want to make others feel good, express thanks to them even for little things. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

Who would find it meaningful to receive a call or note from you expressing thanks for something? It may be current or a long overdue expression.

While you are expressing thanks, don’t forget to thank the God of all blessings. After all, He was the one our Pilgrim predecessors had in mind at the first celebration.

Often I read something and think I wish I had written that. Just because someone else writes something is no reason for not repeating it if proper credit is given. My wife clipped and shared such a piece from “Family Circle,” November 11, 1999. It is too good not to share.

I AM THANKFUL FOR ….

… the mess to clean up after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

… the taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed. 

… the complaining I hear about our government because it means I have freedom of speech.

… the clothes that fit a bit tight because that means I have had enough to eat.

… my shadow that watches me work because it means the sun is shining.

… the parking space at the far end of the parking lot because it means I have the ability to walk.

… my heating bill because it means I have been warm. 

… the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means I can hear.

… the piles of laundry because it means my loved ones are nearby.

… the weariness and aching muscles at the end of a day because it means I have been active.

… the lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning

and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.

… the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means I am alive.”

“Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (Psalm 106:1)