More than just thank you

It’s more than just thank you.  It’s an invitation to adopt gratitude as a lifestyle.

Everything is coming together more beautifully than I could’ve planned.  This is the 100th episode of Joy in the Journey Radio, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I can’t think of a better topic for this milestone program than gratitude.

I typically devote the program the day before Thanksgiving to gratitude.  It is, after all, a fitting topic for the time.  But today I want to walk what Robert Frost called “the road less traveled.”

Thanksgiving is the first of what I call the Holy Trinity of Holidays.  As we transition into a new year, we start with gratitude for what we’ve received.  Then we move into Christmas, and the focus shifts towards the true Center of life as we celebrate His mercies and re-center our lives upon Him.  Finally, we have New Year’s Day, the first day of a new year and a new us as we resolve to improve going forward.

This perspective on three popular holidays placed close together on the calendar encourages us to experience the traditions associated with those days not as rote routines but as an invitation to improve upon ourselves.  Seen in this light, Thanksgiving then becomes more than just a day to reflect on our gratitude.  It’s more than just thank you.  It’s an invitation to adopt gratitude as a lifestyle.

Let it define you

Indeed, gratitude properly understood is more than giving thanks.  Gratitude is a state of being.  When we’re truly grateful, gratitude becomes so infused within us that it defines us.  We feel it so intensely we can’t help but broadcast it to all around.

And those around us will want to spend more time around us.  Let’s face it; grateful people are simply more pleasant people.  They are more easy to please and more quick to please others.

Thus, when it becomes a defining characteristic, gratitude gives birth to many other virtues.  Grateful people more willingly have compassion and render service.  Grateful people are more humble and more easily taught.  Grateful people are more cheerful and friendly.

This is more than just saying thank you when appropriate.  This is more than remembering to include thanks in our prayers.  This is gratitude as a lifestyle.

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Start with prayer

So of course that idea begs the question: How do we adopt a lifestyle of gratitude?  What changes can we make so expressions of gratitude become not just a rote activity or compliance with an excepted norm but rather a manifestation of our character?

For me, the answer to such questions lies in a practice I adopted some time ago.  When I kneel to offer my morning prayers, I do not ask for anything.  Instead, I simply express gratitude.

I struggled at first with this practice.  That’s to be expected since I wasn’t used to it.  But as I persisted, it became easier for me to think of things for which I’m grateful and to express gratitude for them.

Eventually the practice evolved into expressing thanks for blessings I have not yet received.  For example, heading into my recent midterm exams, I of course thanked heaven for being able to study and progress towards a career of my choice, for help in completing assignments, and for assistance in learning as I prepared for my exams.  But I also thanked God for the help He would yet offer me.

And He did help me.  I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, but I did OK.  And I again offered thanks, this time for what He had given me.

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Embrace the lifestyle

Adopting this practice of expressing only gratitude in my morning prayers has been instrumental in my efforts to adopt a lifestyle of gratitude.  Spending the first several minutes of my day immersed in gratitude colors the rest of my day, imbuing it with a spirit of gratitude that influences me in my work and my interactions with other people.

I’ve also felt it inspire other virtues within me, such as a greater tendency to be kind to others, a greater propensity to help others where I can, and a greater faith that the Lord will provide for me.  In conjunction with the increase of virtue has been a decrease of vice.  I’ve felt less desire to steal or cheat because gratitude has inspired me with feelings of abundance and plenty.  And I’ve felt less desire to covet because gratitude has reminded me of the Lord’s tender mercies and His plan to bless me with what I truly need.

Gratitude is more than just thank you; it’s a lifestyle.  When we exercise our efforts to adopt gratitude as a lifestyle, the Lord blesses our efforts by blessing us with the fruits of gratitude.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

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You can listen to the monologue from today's episode of Joy In The Journey Radio here.  Please also feel free to continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.  Want to hear more?  Listen to the whole show by going to the show page for this episode.