Attitude of Gratitude

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Are you prepared with an attitude of gratitude? More than once I've heard it preached that this attitude should be a year round thing- not just at Thanksgiving. But I have also found that the things for which I am grateful are the things that I cannot really write a thank you note for. 

 As a general rule, we do not write thank you notes to our friends and family for loving us, caring for us, looking out for us. We do tend to write thank you notes (or send thank you videos if you're one of those young people) so that we acknowledge the receipt of the gift and express our gratitude for it. So, we write gifts for the things, but it is the people we treasure. You don't write a thank you note for the person to someone for the laughs and the memories, but you might if they bake you a cake. 

 Where does this attitude of gratitude get Biblical? Well, I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to say that every day we should be grateful for all the things God has given to us. The rain, the wind, and the bright sunshine. For the birds that sing, the bees that buzz, and the mud puddles too. In many faith traditions they give testimony as part of worship. And the classic start is to thank God that today they woke up and stood up. They are glad to still be standing. Every day is a gift, that's why we call it the present sort of thinking. For many it is a deeply held theology that even the smallest of good things must have come from God. 

 Where's the challenge in this? The challenge is to find a way to express gratitude to others every day. Send a text to a friend to thank them for something intangible. Call your mom or dad or someone else who helped make you who you are. Write down something that made you grateful to be alive today and start keeping a gratitude journal. And when you pray, don't forget to start out with that thank you to the first who gives, the greatest who gives, and the unending giver... God.