Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Gratitude
I have been thinking about gratitude lately. I tend to have a very positive outlook on life and that wasn't always the case. Nor is my personal life history a charmed one by any definition but as I get older, I find my life being filled with gratitude.
Recently I heard someone stating that their troubles were nothing compared to someone else's troubles and therefore they felt gratitude to the universe/god/source of life. Is this an expression of gratitude? I tend to think not. To be filled with gratitude is to be grateful for where you are now and not compared to someone else's place in the sun. Yes, even grateful for the contrast of where you are now to where you want to be because in the contrast of these two places is a clarity of what you want and gratitude opens us up to potentially find / receive the avenues to follow to close the gap between the two.
Rev. Michael Beckwith of Agape Church (a transdenominational church with ties to Religious Science of Mind) in LA speaks of gratitude as a key to opening up the floodgates of the heavens. It is part of his prosperity gospel that he preaches. He also speaks about expressing gratitude for where one is and not compared to another. Jesus is also said to have commented on this form of gratitude given in comparison to another person's lot. The rich man praying in the temple extolling praises to god, thanking god for not making him like that poor miserable sinner over there. The poor miserable sinner prays his gratitude for god's grace being bestowed on him, albeit sinner that he is. Jesus says the sinner's prayers were answered.
True gratitude seems then to be based solely on relationship to one's own place in the sun. And the benefits of gratitude only come when gratitude is offered for gratitudes sake and not for any comparison of being better or lower than any other. The best benefit that I am aware of that a grateful heart provides a hue to everyday events that might ordinarily be gray. Blessings abound, Protected Peace
Recently I heard someone stating that their troubles were nothing compared to someone else's troubles and therefore they felt gratitude to the universe/god/source of life. Is this an expression of gratitude? I tend to think not. To be filled with gratitude is to be grateful for where you are now and not compared to someone else's place in the sun. Yes, even grateful for the contrast of where you are now to where you want to be because in the contrast of these two places is a clarity of what you want and gratitude opens us up to potentially find / receive the avenues to follow to close the gap between the two.
Rev. Michael Beckwith of Agape Church (a transdenominational church with ties to Religious Science of Mind) in LA speaks of gratitude as a key to opening up the floodgates of the heavens. It is part of his prosperity gospel that he preaches. He also speaks about expressing gratitude for where one is and not compared to another. Jesus is also said to have commented on this form of gratitude given in comparison to another person's lot. The rich man praying in the temple extolling praises to god, thanking god for not making him like that poor miserable sinner over there. The poor miserable sinner prays his gratitude for god's grace being bestowed on him, albeit sinner that he is. Jesus says the sinner's prayers were answered.
True gratitude seems then to be based solely on relationship to one's own place in the sun. And the benefits of gratitude only come when gratitude is offered for gratitudes sake and not for any comparison of being better or lower than any other. The best benefit that I am aware of that a grateful heart provides a hue to everyday events that might ordinarily be gray. Blessings abound, Protected Peace
# posted by ProtectedPeace @ 3:43 PM 
