"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
-- John F Kennedy
"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."
-- W. T. Purkiser
"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all."
-- William Faulkner
What they all say is to not give lip service to gratitude. The real gratitude is shown in the living with it in your heart and expressing it outwardly.
In years gone by, I've been grateful for many, many things. I got a really good used bike for my paper route when I was eleven. I was grateful for that. I've had many, many presents that I have been grateful for. Most of the things I used to be grateful for were external things.
In recent years, I have had a whole new way of looking at gratitude. I've talked about this before, but the book, Power In Praise by Merlin Carothers completely changed my take on gratitude. Since reading that book about seven years ago, I have been on a growing path of praise. Now I praise things, events, sights, feelings, large or small, good or not so good. Almost all of the time. Almost because I still have some growing to do. I'm not yet fully grown. Still working on it. But, I have crossed the threshold and I am in the house!
I can tell you without the slightest smidgen of doubt that this one thing has changed me in such a way as if I were another person to myself. I see life in a completely different way than I did not so long ago. I see other people in a different way than I did not so long ago and I see events in a different way than I did not so long ago. I'm more calm, more forgiving, more understanding, more patient, more kind, more thoughtful, more giving. Those are wonderful gifts to receive, wouldn't you agree?
Paul in the Bible said it so well: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances. . ." I find it amazing what happens when I am this way. The circumstances may not change; however, how I feel about and respond to the circumstances does. To me, that is power and it comes from gratitude. Amazing.
Live your life with gratitude on your lips and in your heart.
I Am Grateful For Everything All The Time. It Is Joyful.
Spread Some Joy Today--Let your lips express gratitude to others today. Find things to praise them for. You will change two lives today.
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