True Gratitude

Gratitude is one of the things I think we focus on a lot in our lives. We teach our children to say thank you when they receive something, but do we only say thank you when we get something or are we grateful every day for the things we already have in our lives? Some of us do and I think there are also some of us that don’t. We just simply take things for granted.

In times when thing are tough we complain and forget about the current things that we have. We so often focus on the lack in our lives, and that total feeling of emptiness we experience that we do not see the good around us, and the things we can be grateful for. And in times when things go well we so often are grateful and ecstatic about those things. It is then when we go on our knees and praise God for all the good things in our lives, but when it goes bad we forget about the ecstatic moment we experienced and we find ourselves back at square one complaining about the things we don’t have.

True gratitude is when we have a sincere balance between these two emotions. That is when we are grateful for the good and the bad times. If you have to look back at the bad things that happened in your life, right at that very moment you do not understand why things happened the way they did, but if you look back you will realise that you learned and gained from that experience more than you lost. Bad things sometimes happen just to bring us back into perspective and to teach us something.

Most of the times we bring the bad things upon ourselves. For example I work hard. My work is perfect and my boss praises me for my good work and my dedication. This makes me feel good and at some stage it goes to my head and I think that I cannot do anything wrong. Then comes that day that I lose focus because what can go wrong? I am perfect and so is my work and I miss a minor detail that has disastrous effects and everything suddenly goes wrong. The boss is upset and I look like a total idiot. This is all my own fault. The bad things in life are there to just bring us back to mother earth and help us to get a bit of perspective again.

True gratitude is there to maintain a balance between being grateful for the good that we receive , but also to be grateful for the lessons we learn when things are not always going our way even if we cannot see the good at that very moment. True gratitude is also saying thank you to the things I already have and so often take for granted.  It is saying thank you even if you don’t have the perfect life you so badly want. In everyday there is something to be grateful for even if it is just the fact that you are alive today.

A blessing in disguise

One of the things that we rely on most in our lives is money. Money is the key to everything. Without money it is almost impossible to get anywhere in life. Money pays our bills, buys our food and is also the measure of success for most people. It is also the one thing we complain about the most.

I know someone who is very wealthy and yet when you speak to him he always tells you just how tight things are at the moment. He never has enough money, and if you ask him why things are tight with him he will tell you that he just bought new property or a new home or that he just sold his Porsche and bought a better one. And when you look at this it is not because he does not have money it is because it is going well and he is getting money, that he can do all these things.

We so often complain about things so much so that we do not see the blessing hidden behind them. This man is having the live of his dreams and yet he is complaining about it. 

Complaining has become such a part of our lives that we cannot go without it. I know a young lady who is a single mother of two. She works for a very small salary and yet whenever you ask her how she is doing she never complains and it is always going well. She always refers to the beautiful day and the bright sunshine. She even sees the sunshine on the coldest day of winter.

Instead of being grateful for the things we receive in our lives we complain about it. We are never happy with what we have no wonder we don’t get anything better in our lives. No wonder our dreams do not come true. All because we don’t have appreciation for the things we have at the moment. My brother is always complaining about his house and his job instead of saying thank you that he has a job. He always wants to know from me why I have the life of my dreams and I always give him the same answer. I have learned to be grateful for the little things I have and that is why I can appreciate the big things in my life.

If we are grateful for the things we have and do and we see it as a blessing rather than a burden more great things will come our way. You cannot expect to drive a Porsche if you are not grateful for the Ford you have at the moment. The point is that you have a car to get from point A to point B. It might not be your dream car but it is there and we need to be grateful for having it. The more gratitude we have in our lives the more we will receive.

By displaying gratitude you also show that you are ready to receive bigger and better things in your life. We must learn to give and be grateful before we can be grateful for receiving.