Gratitude Adjustment- Tweaking Our Perspective

What’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving? The food? Football? Time off ? Family? All of the above? Me too. Notice anything missing from that list? Like the actual giving of thanks? Isn’t it funny that we can create a holiday around gratitude- and go to great lengths to pull it off- and still not feel or express a lot of thankfulness? For the next couple of weeks we’re trying to open our hearts up for a little “gratitude adjustment”. With a couple of tweaks from God we’ll be able to settle into a grateful place and embody the spirit of the season.

Realizing Just How Blessed We Are
The way we see things often determines the way we live our lives. Adjusting our perspective gives us a chance to live differently. They key to maintaining a grateful perspective? Realizing just how blessed we are. Of course, it’s easy to lose sight of that. Whether we’re striving for more and more- or simply trying to hold on to what we’ve got in a challenging time- it’s tempting to take our blessings for granted. The solution? Zoom out a bit. Look past “our world” to “the world”. And in global terms- every one of us is very, very blessed. For example, did you know that only 8% of the people on the planet own a car- any kind of car at all? Or that the US spends more on trash bags every year than nearly half of all countries spend on everything? Or that the same amount Americans spend on ice cream annually (about $20 billion) could be used to provide all of the world’s poorest people with clean water and basic nutrition and medical care? We’ve got a lot to be thankful for, huh?

This isn’t just true in a global scale but in our city too. Want to realize how healthy you are? Walk through a hospital today- or call a friend who is sick. Want to appreciate your home? Take a walk downtown and talk with some folks who don’t have one? Want to be grateful for your job? Listen to your friends who are stuck in the middle of a job search. If we look around a little, all of the sudden our lives look pretty good by comparison.

Realizing Why We've Been Blessed
When we see all that we have to be thankful for we might begin to feel a bit guilty. Why should we have so much when others have so little? Great question. God’s answer? We've got it so that we can share it. Check out this passage in 1 Timothy 6:17-19. The right responses to God’sblessings aren’t guilt, idolatry, or arrogance- but rather gratitude, enjoyment and generosity.

THINK/TALK ABOUT IT:
Q: What’s your favorite part of the Thanksgiving holiday? Why?

Q: How good are you at maintaining a grateful perspective? What helps you stay in or get back to that place?

Q: Where could you go or who could you spend time with this week to remind you just how blessed you are?

Q: Look back at 1 Timothy 6:17-19. Notice the ratio between God’s commands to enjoy His blessings and to share them. Why do you think it is so lopsided?

Q: What opportunities will/could you have this week to share something good in your life with someone else?