by David Bates
You know, sometimes I don’t always recognize everything I have to be grateful for. At times I forget to give gratitude for the many awesome things that have happened in my life. But in conjunction with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve been thinking a lot about what gratitude is, where it comes from, and how I can better recognize the good in my life.
Even though I may not always be grateful-that is expressing outward thanks or consciously recognizing and listing all the good in my life-I’ve realized that even when I may not be aware of it, my heart is always grateful. A hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 3) takes us through three verses that begin “A grateful heart….” The first verse likens a grateful heart to a garden, “Where there is always room, For every lovely, God-like grace to come to perfect bloom.”
The question for me has been, how can I more readily tap into that gratitude garden that’s in my heart?
A few years ago I learned a bit about where to look within myself for gratitude. I traveled to Japan as part of a study abroad program with my college. For two weeks of the abroad, my fellow students and I lived with different Japanese families. I was excited for this experience, but I wasn’t sure what to expect and I didn’t know very much Japanese. Also, I wanted to have fun with the family, but I didn’t want to interfere with their normal routine. On the first day, my younger homestay brother took me to a festival at his school. At first I got the feeling that my homestay brother would’ve rather hung out with his friends than “baby-sit” me. It was awkward.
I decided I had a choice. I could either be ungrateful for the love of my homestay family, for the kindness my brother has expressed in showing me his school-because I could see that he was a kind person-and for introducing me to his friends. Or I could simply say “thanks” to God right then and there for the whole traveling experience and for setting me up with such a wonderful family.
I chose to do the latter. Immediately I changed my perspective about the situation and let the gratitude pour forth from my heart. It’s not like I was trying to create gratitude at that moment. Instead I was recognizing the gratitude that was really always there, and it came from God. I let it shine through a dismal, untrue sense of things that seemed to be clouding my consciousness.
It was at this point that my thoughts about the whole day changed. I ended up having a wonderful time with my homestay brother and his friends and had progressively better experiences as the two weeks went on. After I opened my eyes that day, I continued to keep them open. I noticed all the loving things my family was doing for me throughout the two weeks. They provided me with food, showed me around town, and exposed me to the cultural events that made them love Japan so much. And I loved it now, too.
I learned from this experience how gratitude truly is from the heart. It is like an open fountain (or a blooming garden) that is constantly providing. During that day at my homestay brother’s school, I found I could let my heart overflow with gratitude at any time if I was willing to recognize a sense of gratefulness in my life.
Even if a slight case of narrow mindedness had kept me from initially realizing how grateful I actually was, I now know that I am forever grateful because I am always an expression of the highest sense of gratitude and the originator of gratitude, God. Because I’m always grateful, that must mean I always have something to be grateful for! What an awesome conclusion to draw!
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I think it takes strength of character to be able to be grateful right in the face of discomfort. Good on you!
i’m trying to understand. you think that every one is really grateful but they just don’t know it? can you explain that more?