Practicing Gratitude

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

God commands His people many times in Scripture to be thankful. Every good thing that we enjoy comes from Him – He made it all. He deserves all glory, honor, praise, and our gratitude. We know from experience and from scientific research that spending time meditating over the things for which we are grateful helps to reduce stress and lower blood pressure. When we take the time to realize what God has done for us it can only produce profound gratitude. Today I heard a great idea for spending time in a state of gratitude each week. Begin with the first letter of the alphabet and go through trying to think of something you are grateful for that starts with each letter. If you do this weekly and try not to duplicate, you should be able to think of myriads of things for which you are thankful! Maybe try it on Thankful Thursday each week. Here is my first alphabetical list of “thankful things” just off the top of my head:

A – abilities

B – babies

C – clothes

D – dad

E – engineers

F – food

G – God’s Goodness

H – happiness

I – inspiration

J – joy

K – kindness

L – love

M – money

N – nature

O – opportunities to serve

P – pets

Q – quiet

R – relationships

S – sunshine

T – technology

U – universe

V – vacations

W – water

X – experience

Y – yogurt

Z – zebras (this was a hard one!)