The Power of Gratitude

Did you have a Thanksgiving holiday worth celebrating? Did you make a list of all the wonderful things you were thankful for this past year?

And my next question is this: were you one of those who took advantage of the ‘special sales’ advertised by all the major retailers for what has become known as “Black Friday”?

In some ways, it’s curious how these 2 events are related.

I mean, one day you’re expressing gratitude for all the wonderful things in your life, and the very next day, you find so many more things to be grateful for.

See what I mean?

For many years, I would make up a list of the things I had to be grateful for. Most of the time, there were maybe a dozen or so items on the list.

Recently, the minister at our church reminded us of something he heard a long time ago, which I think is a superb way of looking at the whole gratitude issue.

When our minister was in ministerial school, his class was asked to make a list of all the things they were grateful for. After several minutes, the class stopped writing, feeling they had written down everything they felt needed to be on the list.

And then they were told to consider this idea. What if everything NOT on the list would be taken away from you?

How much longer would your list need to be now?

Most of us take many things for granted. We EXPECT them to be a part of our lives, and it’s only when they are missing that we consider how much they mean to us.

I no longer make up a gratitude list. It would be a whole lot easier to make up a list of the things I’m not grateful for, but then — what would be the point?

Now I know you probably don’t need to hear this, as you’re most likely well familiar with this topic. I just wanted to share it with you because you never know — SOMEONE may need to hear it.