Gratitude

Yesterday I was reminded of a hardly-talked-about attribute - a core virtue we call gratitude.   Not that we intentionally think about cultivating virtues at all, or at least we rarely identify them as such.  When was the last time you wrote up a list of virtues?

That’s why I decided to blog briefly about gratitude.

Gratitude can pop in and out of our days like a happy elf, but holds the potential to radically reform us when adopted as a lifestyle.  What evidences show up in a life defined primarily by humble praise of God born of gratitude? Inner peace, confidence, and meaningful living even in the midst of difficulty…which births more gratitude.  Discontent, on the other hand, inspires praise of self and is born of striving. Grasping. Drivenness. In this case, life is about us and our agenda rather than God and His.  Such a mindset leads to an ongoing longing for, and crashing after, “something else” and “something more” and “something other than” and….ongoing discontent.

Gratitude relies on gracious divine intervention – rescue, if you will, from the onslaught of those “somethings.” This is not situational rescue, as in having difficult circumstances radically altered until they feel comfortable, but rather heart-level restoration.  Gratitude, coupled with praise and humility, are the antidotes for alienation from God, self, and others.  Gratitude is the way back Home. Perhaps most importantly, gratitude is the manifestation of true faith.