Do you wake up with a smile on your face? I do. Every morning my two-year-old son, Jeremiah, shouts to me a jubilant, “Hello my daddy!”, at some awful hour and accompanied by some particularly ripe morning breath. It doesn’t bother me; it actually brings a grin to my face and quickly dispels any of the ambivalence that tends to be my default attitude when waking up. I return the little scamp’s greeting with a hug and a kiss—sending him on his way. Children truly are a gift from God. I can’t help but wonder if the Father looks upon us, with our “ripe morning breath,” and smiles lovingly at our shortcomings. In Acts 17:30, it says that He winks at man’s ignorance. The Greek word for “winked” here is hypereidon and it means “to overlook”. Something tells me that He overlooks a lot.
What strikes me as odd isn’t my toddler’s morning breath but my own ambivalence in view of God’s abundant grace. Shouldn’t I be grateful all the time—waking up every day with joy and gratitude? My blessings are beyond measure. I don’t have a serious illness or chronic pain, and for the most part my family is in good health. Most importantly, I am the recipient of the most precious gift ever given—redemption. What would it take to muster real gratitude every day?
I’m reminded of a roundtable discussion my family was having about which Holy Day was our favourite and why. We heard the usual suspects—Feast of Tabernacles, Passover, and Atonement. Wait, Atonement? That’s right; that was my dad’s favourite holy day. He explained that he always felt deep-seated, authentic gratitude after observing the Day of Atonement. This really struck me as counterintuitive.
It made me consider that it’s imperative that we actively create time to be mindful of how blessed we are. Just like Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV).
The promise is that the peace of God shall be with you. Peace is definitely present when I pore over the blessings in my life and let go of anxiety. Conversely, when I keep thinking about all the bad things in my life, I’m downright morose. The crazy part is, I know this. Yet I’m drawn to focusing on the negative more than the positive in my life. I’ll even notice how my prayers are a list of all the things that need to be “fixed”. How annoying it must be to listen to someone prattle on about how terrible everything is. When you come across these people in the course of life, you try to avoid them, don’t you? Would God be any different?
Don’t get me wrong, there are real problems that God (the loving Father He is) wants to hear about, but I think there is a way to raise them with a positive spin. For example, let’s say you have chronic neck pain. Instead of asking that God please heal you, try thanking Him for healing (future tense) your neck, if it be His will. You may think I’m quibbling about semantics, but I think it’s a subtle shift that appreciates the will of our Father, makes a positive projection, and starts with thanksgiving.
Gratitude is the mother of happiness
You can do this with every prayer. I challenge you to try it out for a week or even a month. When you pray, simply notice when you are “thanking” or when you are “requesting”. At the moment you catch yourself asking for something without gratitude, just stop and rephrase it. Remember Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Don’t forget Jonah in the belly of the fish with no deliverance in sight—probably coming to terms with his imminent demise—yet praying with thanksgiving. (You can read it in Jonah 2:1-9). He concludes, “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.”
Thereafter, he is vomited out onto dry land. Talk about a positive projection!
There are also scientifically-proven benefits of gratitude, too: we sleep better, live longer, have more energy, and it even improves the quality of our relationships. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Statesman and philosopher, said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all of the others”. Dennis Prager wrote in ‘Who is Happy?’, “Gratitude is the mother of happiness”, and I believe it.
Not everyone has a toddler to joyfully shout the negativity out of them in the morning, and I know we don’t all leap out of bed in the morning singing praises to God (that’s a challenge for another month). It will take focused effort to actively shape our prayers with a thankful and grateful tone, and something tells me we will discover we have more to be thankful for, than we ever knew.
Cynthia - November 27, 2021
Amen!