Gratitude…With Your Eyes Open
My favorite holiday is next week. Thanksgiving means a lot to me. Having kids, I like Christmas a lot, but Thanksgiving has been my favorite for a long time. (I not-so-jokingly call it “Christmas without the pressure!”)
During this time of year, a lot of attention is given to gratitude. It is hard to scroll through social media, hear sermons, or do other things without someone eventually talking about how we should be grateful all the time. Certainly that is true, but it is also true that, at times, we need a little help.
In our recent Gospel Meeting at Central, brother Hiram Kemp made a statement about gratitude that hit home for me. I know it hit home for others, too, because I have heard it referenced a few times in various conversations in the intervening weeks.
It was a fairly simple statement, but the word picture it drew in the mind was so powerful and needed. He spoke of how, at times, we can struggle with being grateful. Maybe it is because we are in a negative set of circumstances or maybe it is because we are simply feeling blue. We all know times in which we have struggled to think of things to express thanks for.
Then he said something to this effect: “It is good in those times to just open your eyes and thank God for the things you see.”
As I said, that is a very simple thought, but it is also supremely profound. If you will just open your eyes right now and glance around for even a moment, you will find something–and, likely several things–that you can be thankful. Not to mention that you can be thankful that you are able to see!
I challenge you as I challenge myself to do this more often. If you are in a rut and struggling with gratitude, just go around the space in which you find yourself–whether a room at home, a park, a store, a church building, or anywhere else–and begin to thank God for some of the things you actually see.
As the song says, “It will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
