GRATEFULNESS
Gratitude is an expression that you appreciate what you have received from someone, it might be a gift or service offered to you.
I was listening to a priest via you tube and he asked a question in his sermon; “Are you grateful or are you a great fool?”
You will agree with me, that this virtue is sometimes lacking in us, we tend to suddenly take things for granted.
When we go the hospital we will appreciate the basic necessities of life, part of the priest said was a man who was admitted to the hospital because he could not pass urine easily, and his medical bill was so huge after he was discharged for staying a few days, the doctor was trying to console the man, however the man said he was not worried about the expensive bill, he said he could afford it, but got him amazed was that he is paying so large for him to urinate for few days while all the period he was young till his old age he was urinating freely without any expenses attached. What a great lesson.
When we do away with our entitlement mentality, we will tend to be more grateful. We live in a fast paced society where everyone is on the move. However we need to take a break and identify the beautiful things in our life.
If you are reading this now, it shows that you have a the first and most important gift from God, which is life, and how we live it out goes a long way to sh
ow how grateful we are to God. We have to nurture our bodies and do what is necessary to stay healthy, and nature was made to support our well-being, the current outbreak of covid-19 pandemic which has brought the world to a halt teaches us a lesson on the need to care for mother-earth, a beautiful gift to us. When we destroy the mother earth with our callous attitudes and disregard of the well-being of our neighbours and the animals, it behoves that we are ungrateful.We have to be grateful for everything we have, even though it might seems little, we can still help others with our scarce resources. Do not wait for big things like miracles to happen, be grateful for your eyes seeing a beautiful morning.
Remember the story of the young boy who was complaining that he needed a pair of shoes, when he got to the market he saw a little boy who legs had been amputated, he then changed his perception about his need. This does not suggest we should be grateful when others are miserable, rather we should it as a lesson to help others.
Life is full of challenges, how we react to them really matters, we should be thankful if they come, Jack Ma, the richest man in China and co-founder of Ali Baba was rejected for so many job applications, he gave story of how he even did better than a colleague in the interview, yet he was not chosen. Those were bitter experiences for him but he never gave up on life. Life is beautiful, discover the beauty in it.
To be grateful you have to be intentional about it, you can chose to meditate over the beautiful things life has offered you, you can also write down your good memories of them, just like a song beautifully says : “count your blessings, name them one by one….”
Go out there and advocate for change, statements like: thank you, God bless you, I am grateful and many others should be freely expressed.
Feel free to comment below if you to express your thoughts. Let me conclude by saying thank you for finding time to read this. God bless you. Cheers!
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