Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has.
It is the quality of being thankful, a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Many of us are lucky enough to live a life of convenience, we have a house, a car, a family, a good job, healthcare and by enlarge we have nothing to be ungrateful about. However, our nature tends to concentrate on what we do not have as opposed to what we do. One who has no bike will dream about a bike; the one with a bike will dream about having a car. Sitting in our car we end up complaining about the other drivers around us. Remember that however hard we may perceive our lives to be, there will be somebody out there whose life is much harder than ours.
If we want to be happy in lives, then we must choose the attitude of being grateful and adopt the ability to show gratitude. We all have issues of one sort or another. The outcome of being happy is based on our ability to focus not on our problems but rather, on all that we have been given. Focusing on our problems will mean we will attract more problems. Conversely, demonstrating gratitude with what we have results in an abundance of happiness even in our dark times. Living with an attitude of gratitude means that you do not just thank God for what He did in the past, but you also thank Him for what He is doing and will do in the future. You thank Him for opening new doors. You thank Him for developing and increasing you. You thank Him for bringing the right people into your life. Today and every day have an attitude of gratitude. Our appreciation is evidently a vital quality to nurture. Only richness of heart will interchange us from limitation and fear to growth and love. When we are appreciating something, our ego moves out of the way and we connect with our soul. Gratitude brings our attention into the present, which is the only place where miracles can unfold. The more profound our gratitude, the more we perceive with the eyes of the soul and the more our life flows in harmony with the creative power of the universe
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
Meister Eckhart
The Power of Gratitude is not only an imperative life skill to acquire and master, it is a tremendously conscious, consistent and significant characteristic, which will attract abundance and happiness that we all desire. When we are in a genuine state of gratitude our energy is one of acceptance and harmony.
Attitude of Gratitude
Once there were two students. One day they were both told that they had received the great honour of seeing the Grand-Master. They were both very excited and humbled by this honour. The two students hiked to a remote mountain top to a very beautiful temple there. Both students were excited to see the Grand-Master.
The junior student volunteered himself to go first, as he entered in to the master’s chamber, the Grandmaster looked very calm…. and silent…. His eyes showed kindness. The Grandmaster said, “Look in the Mystical Window and see the Truth.” The junior student looked, and after a while he had a vision. He saw himself holding The Sacred Sword and also holding The Sacred Book. He told the master, “I looked just like the paintings of the saints of old! It was amazing!” The Grandmaster said, “Yes indeed” Then Junior said, “If I am like the saints of old…. then I must be a very great person!” The Grandmaster assured him, “Indeed, you are very special to God.” Junior decided that because he was so special, that he must go and teach others. The junior student left the chamber very excited, saying, “I knew it! I was always treated like a junior student, as if I don’t know anything, but I AM A GREAT MAN! Everyone should listen to everything I say. I WILL GO AND TEACH THESE PEOPLE!!!” After he left to teach, the Grandmaster sighed to himself and said, “Indeed you shall.”
The senior student was now called to see the master and instructed to look in to the Mystical Window to see the truth. Calmly, she looked in the window. After a while she shared her vision, “Master, I saw myself holding The Sacred Sword in one hand and The Sacred Book in another hand.” She explained how in the vision she looked like the saints of old. The Grand-Master said, “Indeed” “Master, if the truth is that I am like the saints of old, does that mean I am a great woman?” The Grandmaster assured her just as he had the junior student, “Indeed you are, you are very special to God.” Then the student asked, “If I am a great woman, if I am special to God, if I am like the saints of old… doesn’t that mean it is my task to spread the truth?” The Grandmaster said, “Yes indeed it does.”
Then the senior student did something the junior student didn’t do… the senior student thought for a moment… and asked, “Master, may I ask, I’ve always seen the saints holding the sacred book and sword… what do these things really mean?” The grandmaster was very pleased, “Ah! It means God has given us all very many gifts but it takes a lot of focus to constantly remember what has been given to us. It takes focus… as sharp as a SWORD!” The student was amazed to hear the meaning of the Sword, “So it means we have to focus at each moment to remember all the gifts God has given us!!” The Grandmaster continued to teach her, “Indeed! And once you focus and remember the gifts… it takes the heart of a poet to fully appreciate them. The Sacred Book is like flowing poetry.”
The senior student again did something the junior student did not; she started breathing deeply. She began to meditate… “I am using my sword-like focus to remember every blessing the universe has given me….. My heart is melting and I wish to sing the praises of the Infinite forever, and then sing them even more!” As she was meditating she realized she was using The Sacred Book AND Sword, “Right now, I am using sword-focus and my heart is flowing like poetry on the pages of a book!” The Grandmaster was extremely pleased. Bursting with love for his student, he said, “Indeed you ARE!”
Later both the students came down the mountain. In the town, people really wanted to know if the Grandmaster had revealed the truth of the whole universe to them. The junior student came jogging down the mountain, very excited. With his eyes wide he yelled, “LISTEN TO ME, LISTEN TO ME!” The people asked, “Oh my goodness! Did the Grandmaster bless you?” “Did you look in the Mystical Window? What did you see?” The junior student shouted, “THE GRANDMASTER PRAISED ME AS A GREAT MAN!” The people were astonished. The junior student continued, “The Mystical Window revealed that I AM THE GREAT SAINT OF THIS AGE! It is I who has The Sacred Sword and I who has The Sacred Word.” He continued telling them his ideas. What he said sounded very much like the truth, and many people who heard him believed everything he said. Soon he became very famous and he had many followers.
The senior student came down the mountain smiling and humming happily to herself, the few people who didn’t follow the first student noticed something. The senior student seemed very peaceful… very content. They asked, “Well, what did you see?” The senior student said, “I saw that God has given all of us many gifts.” She smiled with kindness. People wanted to hear more, so she taught them, “There are two things. One is the challenge of remembering our gifts. The other is the heart to never forget them.” Those who heard this felt calm and bright, and they smiled. The senior student continued on her way, the people still wanted to hear more from her, “Where are you going? What will you do?” She smiled with kindness, “Oh, I’ll go somewhere and do something, that’s not what matters. The real challenge is to remember God’s blessings and then to never forget.” The people smiled again. Those who followed the junior student started their own religion. They worshipped the junior student as a prophet and a saint. Those who followed the senior student, just fell in love with life. They were full of gratitude and spent their lives happily serving everyone they met.
"A constant attitude of gratitude brings every blessing in life."
Author unknown
Be Thankful Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire, If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes they will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfilment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles and they can become your blessings.
Author Unknown
Gratitude is the key to unlocking a more open and rewarding perspective on life. Feelings of appreciation are always accompanied by the elevation of one’s state of life and the broadening of one’s perspective. And, the more our life expands, the more profound our sense of gratitude becomes, to the point where we can feel appreciation even for the problems we face in life.
Gratitude is another way in which giving thanks, to appreciate life more fully, to help you put things in their proper perspective. When things don’t go your way, remember that every difficulty carries within it the seeds of an equal or greater benefit. In the face of adversity ask yourself: “What’s good about this?”, “What can I learn from this?”, and “How can I benefit from this?”
Once we become focused on looking for things to be thankful for, we will discover that we start to appreciate modest pleasures and things that were previously taken for granted. Gratitude should never be a response to the attainment of our desires, but to have an eternal state of gratitude, to the extent where you notice the little things and where you constantly look for the good even in unpleasant situations. We should start demonstrating gratitude in all our experiences, instead of waiting for a positive experience in order to feel grateful and in this way we will be on the right road to becoming a master of gratitude.
We cannot be grateful and ungrateful. The two cannot exist at the same time. When you feel grateful, you feel full. When we feel lack of gratefulness then grumbling begins from some corner of our minds. If we feel grateful, gratitude will increase in us and we will be given more. If we keep on grumbling, the negativity in us will increase. Jesus said, “For those who show no gratitude, what little they have will be taken from them. And to those who show gratitude, more will be given and more and more.” This is the law of the nature. For those who do not have this knowledge, there is no way to get out of their grumbling. It becomes a habit.
What are the Characteristics of a Grateful Life?
A life of gratitude is composed of three parts that combine to make a whole.
A sense of purpose in our lives
An appreciation for the lives of those around us
A willingness totake actionto show the gratitude we feel
We must be truly appreciative of the things we receive. Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge, which is only returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good. When Jesus healed ten lepers of their leprosy only one leper returned back to show his gratitude; so it is in life. It seems that we all have requests to make, but few of us think to return and give thanks.
“Our basic attitude in life is one of claiming rights and shunning responsibilities. We have ceased to appreciate the blessings of life, such as health, the beauty of nature, human friendships and love and then to respond to them with gratitude. Gratitude is the key to happiness. We feel that life owes us the fulfilment of every desire and if we do not receive this, we feel bitter and we feel entitled to take advantage of others. Any question of moral good and evil is eliminated.”
Dietrich Von Hilderbrand
If we woke up this morning with more health than illness, we are more blessed than a million who will not survive the week. If we have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, we are ahead of many millions of people around the world. If we have food in our refrigerator, clothes on our back, roof over our head and a place to sleep, we are richer than 75% of this world. If we have money in the bank, in our wallet and spare change in a dish someplace indeed we are lucky. If we hold up our head with a smile on our face and are truly thankful, we are blessed because the majority can, but most do not. If we can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, we are blessed because we can offer God’s healing touch. If we prayed yesterday and today, we are in the minority because we believe in God’s willingness to hear and answer our prayers. If we can read this message, we are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all. We have so many reasons to stay in gratitude.
“God gave us a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
United Humanity