The Giving of Thanks...A Discipline We All Suck At

If ever there was a quick fix no one wanted, it's Gratitude. 😂

Gratitude is one of the disciplines that you must use to transform any season of your life in to one that serves your ultimate purpose: to love God and enjoy Him forever.

But for the most part, we all suck at it. 😅

It's a lot like eating your vegetables. Maybe you didn't used to like them much. Maybe you still don't. But when you force yourself it eat them on the regular, it's hard to deny the benefits.

Several years ago my husband and I were on a health insurance plan that required us to get a blood test every year to get a lower rate. The first year we did it we also happened to dramatically increase the amount of vegetables we ate and it showed in the next blood test we had to take. Every measure of health for both of us had improved. How cool is that? Veggies for the win! Plus more energy and a bit of weight loss. As I practiced preparing them I even started to enjoy them for themselves, the actual act of eating vegetables.

Same with gratitude. You might have to make yourself practice it at first. But then you might notice that it actually works. You might end up a little more productive or a little more present or a little more joyful.

More than once a simple act of thanksgiving has steered me away from falling down in to the pit of despair and drawn me in to the steady, honest, humility of a grateful heart.

This week my clients in both the Fellowship and Transformation groups were challenged to make a Thanksgiving Tree with their kids...stick a branch in a vase, have the kids cut out paper leaves, write something you're grateful for on them and slap them up there. Who cares what it looks like...it's changing your heart. That's what matters.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Heb. 12.11

Happy Thanksgiving!