Thankful and Grateful

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…” (James 1:17)

Two words that don’t always rise to the forefront of our minds as we travel through our days.

I read recently of someone who had a daily habit she did every morning when she wakes up. The first thing she does is to think of 2 things in her life she is grateful for. It’s a habit that forces her mind and day to start with a thankful and grateful heart. You would think that gratitude would be a natural thought process but it isn’t. It’s a muscle that has to be worked at and exercised regularly otherwise it will atrophy and shrink away.

There are many things in our lives we can be grateful for, and what stops us sometimes is we think there is a gap between what our life is and what we think it should be. Often these are false expectations that are driven from society around us that tries to tell us what we need to have. Most of them are things that we’re told we need to have and we look around us and feel less than because we don’t have the latest and greatest car, a big enough house, etc. But stuff is not what true gratitude is about.

There is a difference between what being thankful is as to being grateful.:

• Thankfulness: Aware and appreciative of a benefit; Thankfulness is an adjective.’
• Gratitude: A state of being grateful; Gratitude is a noun.

Yes, I’m thankful that I have a roof over my head, food to eat and enough money to get what we need. But true gratefulness is a deeper dig – it requires us to think about what we have in and around us to be really grateful about. You don’t find that by looking at a full pantry or your checking account balance.

I choose being in a state of gratefulness.