“Practicing” Gratitude???

Yep. That’s right. Practicing Gratitude. This is about to get real, folks. Real life is hard.

I’m not very good at having a thankful heart. In fact, I suck at it. Maybe I was good at being thankful once-upon-a-time, but now? Not so much. In all honesty, I know that I spend more time thinking negatively about most things, and my family knows firsthand how big this problem is. Negativity is like an illness. A disease. But there is a cure, and I’m after it: gratitude. With gratitude comes humility and a genuinely cheerful heart. With gratitude in my heart I will have a joyful perception of life. This isn’t the same thing as having positive thoughts or staking some claim that something amazing is going to happen in my life for my benefit. No, my aim is to be able to see all of the grace and blessings that I receive each day from my Lord Jesus and to be transformed by the gratitude that will inevitably result.

I was reading my Solid Joys devotion by John Piper on November 21st, and it was actually titled “The Gravity of Gratitude“. The Holy Spirit brought great conviction to my heart through this particular devotion since I’ve known for quite some time that I struggle with being thankful. Piper says,

“When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure.”

I think I’ve just allowed myself to be bogged down by all of the demands of adult life. Don’t you just sometimes long for the days of freedom that you enjoyed as a child? I certainly had responsibilities growing up, but it seems that somehow over the years I have overwhelmed myself and started perceiving everything as a ridiculously heavy burden.

Did you ever watch Veggie Tales as a kid? I have, and I’ve shown some of them to my own kids. They always have catchy tunes with simple lyrics so that you keep singing them, and eventually they’re ingrained into your memory, right? God has seen fit to repeatedly bring this song to my mind: Veggie Tales’ The Thankful Heart. Ever heard that one? Catchy, right? “Because a thankful heart is a happy heart.” And that’s my aim: a thankful and joyful heart.

So what am I doing blogging about this? Lots of folks use journals to record their thankfulness. In fact, we’re in November right now, so everywhere on Facebook I see my friends posting each day their reason to be thankful. I want to go beyond that. It’s perfectly fine to take one month of the year and devote each day’s post about your thankfulness, but I need more time to work on this. We all know that there is power in sharing; it catches on with others. So my theory is that if I am regularly proclaiming a new reason to be thankful then I will be cementing gratitude into my own heart, and maybe someone else will be encouraged in this journey as well.

What am I thankful for today?

My 17-month-old (Tiny Banana) slept through the night. He’s cutting four molars and a few other teeth, and that means he’s whiny, grumpy, picky about what he eats, and wants to nurse several times a night. I’m whooped. But in His grace, God gave both TB and I good rest last night, and TB is napping even now. I’m so thankful for a good night of rest!

Let’s make this mutually encouraging, shall we? Please share something for which you are thankful today!