The Gifts of Gratitude

By Rosemary Younger, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

​There was a time in my life, many decades ago, when we were traveling as a family from Boston to New Jersey to see my family, and it changed my life forever!  

We left later than we had hoped, but finally started on the road with three kids: ages two, five, and six years old. 

We got everyone buckled up and on the road. My husband, Kevin, was driving, and it would take about five hours to get where we were going. About halfway there we stopped for lunch and that took much longer than expected. In fact, it seemed to take forever for the kids, one in particular, to finish their lunch. I suddenly realized that my youngest wasn’t actually eating her lunch. She was dipping her French fries into the ketchup and licking the ketchup! 

Ugh! 

Okay, so finally lunch is done! 

But then I had to take them to the bathroom. It took Kevin all of two minutes to be done, in and out.  It took me and the kids more like fifteen minutes, by the time we were done with all the helping, wiping bottoms, and washing hands. 

Okay, now let’s get on the road! 

We head to the car and it’s two car seats and a booster seat and we get them all buckled up.

So, now that’s done --  let’s get going!  

We finally got everyone buckled up and we were on the road again. We’re not on the road three minutes when we come upon a major car accident that must have just happened.  Four to six cars, smashed and flipped over into the median, no emergency vehicles on the scene yet, and I thought, “Wow! That could have been us!” Then I paused, and I thought… “You know what? … That really could have been us!”

“Hmmm… I wonder if God was delaying us back there with lunch and the bathroom in order to keep us from being in this accident?” 

Forever Changed 

That moment changed me forever. That wasn’t just a “Thank you Lord, for sparing us from this accident.”  It was more like, “Oh my Lord! You have my attention! Not only that -- but you’ve changed my heart, my life, and my thinking FOREVER!!” 

Believe it or not, I am forever grateful for this whole event. He didn’t just save my whole family from this accident -- He made very clear to me that He isn’t done with us yet. 

Being thankful is appreciating the moment, the gift, the unexpected surprise. But it can be momentary. I think of kids on Christmas morning and how excited they are when they receive their many gifts. But how long does that last? How long does it take before they move on to something else? How long before you hear the crying and wailing when they don’t get what they want just a few minutes later? Being thankful can be a momentary thrill but it doesn’t necessarily last very long.

So, to me, there's a difference between being thankful and being grateful. Being thankful is a moment in time – a good moment, but a moment. It’s a short and specific moment when we receive a gift – one we had hoped for, asked for, or thought might bring some joy to our life, and then we move on. Was I thankful we weren’t in the middle of that accident? Absolutely! But Gratitude goes so much deeper! It opened my eyes and has shown me how much my Father in Heaven is watching out for me every moment of every day and even for those who don’t know Him yet. As I look back, I see more clearly how much I owe Him in every aspect of my life, the God who called me to have a deep, full, committed, and abiding relationship with Him.  We escaped that accident, and I got a glimpse of His bigger picture. 

Gratitude has given me the opportunity and the choice to change my thinking, my heart, and my relationship with God and others. Gratitude brings me to tears and brings me back daily to the Eternal Gift-giver of life, of heart, and of an eternal perspective. And that’s what gratitude is to me - it's not just being thankful for the gift, but grateful for the giver of the gift. It brings us back to the source of our thankfulness and deepens our relationship with Him.  It gives us a keen awareness of our gracious God, and the opportunity to change. It helps us see how much we owe Him for His incredible love that goes beyond human understanding. The love, appreciation, and the relationship I have with Him today goes so much deeper than ever before… deeper than I had ever imagined it would or could. And that is exactly what He wants with us - a close and deeply intimate relationship!

Even When I Don't See It, God's Working 

​This makes me think of Moses. Remember when God freed His people from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 12:31-15:21)? Can you imagine being part of a nation doing forced labor for hundreds of years and being set free? The people had been rescued from their oppressive Egyptian authorities, escaping their evil hands, the killing of the Israelites at will, in addition to the slaughter of their infants, etc. They escaped Egyptian bondage, watched Moses part the Red Sea, then crossed the Red Sea and celebrated with music, tambourines, and dancing. Do you get the impression they were appreciative and thankful? Absolutely! Now, how long did their thankfulness last? It was just a few days later that they were grumbling and quarreling with Moses about their current hardships: They cried out, "If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3) Clearly, their thankfulness for the gift of freedom and rescue was short-lived. It did not become that deeper gratitude to the Giver of their freedom and rescue. I want to go deeper than just momentary thankfulness for God's gifts. I want my heavenly Father to know how deeply indebted and forever grateful to Him I am.

Another aspect of gratitude came to me and when I realized it, it hit me at the core. God is ALWAYS WORKING… even behind the scenes, unnoticed, when we can’t even see Him. How many times, especially in my older age, I can look back and see God’s footprints in the sand of my life. Linking together a series of events that I didn’t put together till later in retrospect. Linking together what seemed to be unconnected events and my eyes were opened and I could see the connection to the final outcome. Since then, how I look at delays, inconveniences, interruptions, hurts, things just not going the way I wanted or expected them to go, whether with family, friends, or strangers, has really changed. They don't bother or concern me the way they used to because of my understanding and awareness of God working in the background.

So, gratitude goes deep. I believe it’s not about an incident, a happy moment or outcome, or even about the gift. Gratitude is about the Gift Giver! How deep does my love for God and my trust in God really go? Am I grateful to God and for God in the hard times or just the easy times? Am I grateful and trusting Him when I’m hurting and in pain, or just when things go my way? What about when I’ve prayed and prayed for a particular situation, person, or outcome and then it doesn’t go the way I’d hoped? Do I believe He’s still there and that He knows what He’s doing or, do I stomp off saying, “Forget Him! If there really was a God, He would have done what I’ve asked for,” in this way or that. How we choose to respond is a crucial moment in our relationship with Him, and we make these choices every day. 

Forgotten By God? 

There was a brother in our fellowship of churches who was falsely accused, convicted, and imprisoned for murder, with a sentence of 20 years.  He was offered a plea deal that would have significantly reduced his sentence, but he refused the offer. His reason? “I wouldn’t have a clear conscience before God, admitting to something I never did!” When my friend spoke to him last year (and that was after 19 years in prison), he had just baptized his eighth fellow prisoner! He was let out of prison several months later, but you know he wasn’t going back to the life he used to have. I don’t know about you, but my thinking is “WOW! God had a plan, and it wasn’t for his happiness and joy in this life.” My guess is that God may have wanted to answer the prayers of these other eight inmates to know of His love and hope for our next life. His story makes me think of Joseph, Jacob’s son. 

Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:1-7)

Bible Examples of Gratitude

There are so many great examples of gratitude in scripture. What about Mary Magdalene? Jesus changed her life forever. She went from being imprisoned by demons to living in freedom and trust in the one who freed her. From the moment Jesus freed her to his resurrection and beyond, she was there by his side.

Then there was Hannah. After many years of infertility and sorrow, Hannah was praising God for His gift of her son Samuel. Hannah made the brave decision to follow through on her promise and dedicate her son to the Lord’s service at the temple where Eli was priest. Her response after such a blessing, but such sacrifice, revealed a level of gratitude not many of us can personally comprehend (Samuel 1:26-28).

What about the Samaritan leper? He was one of ten Samaritan lepers who Jesus healed on his way to Jerusalem. This terrible disfiguring and debilitating disease did not faze Jesus. He went and healed them. However, only one returned, falling at his feet in gratitude (Luke 17:15-19).

What about Daniel in the lions’ den, John the Baptist imprisoned, the apostles Peter and Paul? We could go on and on, about how God used every one of them. Their gratitude was abundantly evident in their lives.

Looking back on my life, the sins this gratitude has helped me to overcome are resentment and bitterness. My goal in life had been to be nice to people and stay out of trouble! Growing up I never knew how to work things out with people. I never had an example of that growing up. I never knew how to speak up. I’d go into brain freeze. I didn’t even know what I was feeling. I just knew I was hurt, so I retreated! Because of His love, grace, and mercy, and my husband’s patient encouragement, I can now speak up, but not overwhelmingly. What I came to realize is: how can I NOT forgive someone?! God has forgiven me SOOO much, how can I not forgive someone else?

The fact is, and this is what I trust, God has the bigger picture, and I don’t! His plan isn’t just for me, but for every one of His creations. And sometimes, His efforts or tests are to see if we’re listening to Him. Do I want to draw closer to Him? Will I trust Him even when things don’t go the way I want them to? How deep is my trust in God?  

How deep is my gratitude for my Almighty God? To some degree, how He can and will use me is dependent on the depth of my gratitude, and how far I’m willing to trust Him in the wild, crazy, and very broken world we live in!

Gratitude Lists

So, I want to end with this… gratitude goes deeper than being thankful. It opens our eyes and gives us a glimpse of the His bigger picture. Gratitude changes our thinking,  our relationships, and our lives. Gratitude brings us back to God and takes us deeper in our relationship with Him – the Giver of life, heart, soul, and of eternal perspective.  

I am grateful every day for the many people, opportunities, and the daily gifts God has given me in this life. And, I have to remember, it is my choice what I will do with them. But gratitude brings me to tears – all that our God has done for me in the midst of my brokenness, and He still loves me, desires to draw me closer to Him, and blesses me in the midst of it all! So, my almost daily prayer, is: “Father, open my ears to hear your prompts, open my eyes to see the opportunities before me, and open my heart to your will. And Father, use me today however you wish!”

It helps me to make a list of what I’m grateful for. Make your own list! Here’s mine…

I am forever grateful for:

• The fact that God is always with me
• That He is always working in my life 
• God is always watching over me
• How he uses me to accomplish His will 
• God’s gift of forgiveness
• Overcoming the life I came from
• God’s work in reforming me
• His gift of grace (giving us what we don’t deserve)
• His gift of mercy (when we don’t get what we do deserve!)
• His wisdom, His promptings, and the opportunities He gives me daily
• The opportunities He puts before me every day to reach out to the lost, the hurting, and the rejected
• His direction in my life
• The millions of gifts He blesses me with every day!
• The relationship I’ve come to have with Him
• The hard times I’ve struggled through
• The husband He gave me and the lessons I’ve learned from and because of him
• The children He has blessed me with
• And the mistakes I’ve made with them
• Mistakes I have learned indelibly deep lessons from, and was able to grow and help others because of
• I am forever grateful for His promptings
• I am grateful for the flaws and weaknesses I’ve been blessed with, without which I may never have seen my need for Him

That’s my list. How about you? What are you grateful for? I pray you’ll let your own thankfulness go deeper and become a deeper gratitude for our awesome God!