Gratitude

Living a grateful life is not something that was necessarily modeled for me growing up, but is definitely something I’ve been focusing on recently. I watched as the constant drive for more and better crippled my family and created a lot of bitterness in my parents. It always felt like our family and the life we had wasn’t enough....I wasn’t enough.

Over time I learned it wasn’t a success issue, it was a heart issue. As the old lyric goes “It’s not about getting what you want, it’s about wanting what you’ve got.”

We see this referenced many times in the Bible. I know it’s because God knows that we aren’t always going to be in circumstances we were happy about, but He still wants us to live in joy. “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians‬ ‭4:11-13‬

Too often we take this verse as “if I put my mind to it I can have whatever I want because....Jesus!” What this passage actually shows us is that no matter what I am going through, no matter how difficult my situation, I can CHOOSE my response to it. That’s true power! To be in a place where what is going on doesn’t define me gives me the chance to show what it is to respond to anything life throws at me with contentment, grace, and joy.

When we are grateful no matter our circumstances our entire perspective changes. We are so incredibly blessed that whatever situation we are in there is still an abundance of things to be grateful for.

But beyond feeling gratitude, I also want to get better about expressing it. I want to make sure that God and the people around me know how incredibly grateful I am to have them in my life. I want to be the person that always calls it out. That consistently shows appreciation. A great leader I worked with told me that he “tries to catch his team doing good things” so he can recognize them often and in the day to day! When someone does something, I have shifted from saying “I appreciate it” to “I appreciate you.” It’s small, but I hope other people genuinely know that their presence makes my world better.

Who or what are you grateful for today? Share this with others and tell them why!

#thesassysaint