Gratitude…goes
beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life
is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a
spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I
realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The
discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that
all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be
celebrated with joy.
Gratitude as a
discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful
even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and
resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in
which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.…The choice for
gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I
make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a
little less self-conscious.…There is an Estonian proverb that says:
“Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Acts of
gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that
all is grace.
