Gratefulness

I'm not grateful enough. I know it.  I mean, I’m grateful for things, but I thing we generally go through life just taking things for granted, and not being truly grateful for them.  I certainly do not express my gratefulness enough, either to my husband, or more importantly, to God  I have a very comfortable home, my husband has a good job which enabled me to stay home and now go back to school, my children are all alive, well and thriving. We live in a free country where we can worship as we please, as imperfect as it is – it could be a whole lot worse! I go to a good church where the Lord is worshiped and we are encouraged to live out our lives in service to Him.   I have my salvation, but do I really express how grateful I am for it?  My reading for school this week has convicted me that I need to be much more grateful for things. Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. The we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.  We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things? (Bonhoeffer, 1978)

I’m going to commit to practicing gratitude this week.  Not to see what happens, but because I should.

Reference:

Bonhoeffer, D. (1978). Life Together. New York: Harper One. page 13 - as quoted in

Gutierrez, D. E. (2010). Ministry Is.... Nashville: B&H Publishing Group.

Image from http://bws.biblista.net/2010/09/sunday-xxviii-c-the-one-who-gave-thanks/