i am thankful for essay

Essay on Things I Am Grateful

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100 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

I am grateful for my family. They love and care for me. They are always there to support me in good and bad times. They teach me important things about life. I am thankful for the happy moments we share together.

Good health is a blessing. I am grateful for being healthy. It allows me to do all sorts of things like playing, studying, and helping others. It also saves me from pain and suffering.

I am grateful for the chance to learn. Education opens doors to a brighter future. It helps me understand the world better. It also equips me with skills for life.

I am thankful for my friends. They make my life fun and exciting. They support me when I am down. They are like a second family.

250 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

Family love.

The first thing I am grateful for is my family. They are like a big tree that gives me shade on a sunny day. My parents, siblings, and grandparents always support me. They love me a lot and I love them too. Their love is like a warm blanket on a cold night.

Good Health

Another thing I am thankful for is my good health. It lets me run, play, and have fun. It helps me to learn new things at school. Good health is like a strong boat that keeps me safe in the sea of life.

I am also grateful for my education. It is like a key that opens the door to a bright future. My teachers help me to learn new things every day. They guide me like a lighthouse guides a ship in the dark.

I am thankful for my friends. They make my life fun and exciting. We share our joys and sorrows. They are like stars that light up my world.

The last thing I am grateful for is nature. It gives me fresh air, clean water, and beautiful scenery. It is like a big playground where I can enjoy and learn.

500 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

Introduction.

Gratitude is a strong feeling of being thankful to someone or something for the good things they have given you. It’s like a magic key that opens up a world of positivity and happiness. Today, I want to share some of the things I am grateful for in my life.

First, I am grateful for my family. They are my support system, always there to help me when I need it. My parents, who work hard to provide for me, teach me important life lessons and guide me through tough times. My siblings, even though we sometimes fight, are my best friends. They make me laugh, share my joys and sorrows, and teach me the importance of sharing and caring.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to go to school and learn. Education is a powerful tool that helps me understand the world around me. It gives me the skills to solve problems, make decisions, and become a better person. I am thankful for my teachers who guide me, my classmates who help me learn, and the books that open my mind to new ideas.

I am thankful for the beautiful world around me. The bright sun that gives me warmth, the cool breeze that refreshes me, the green trees that give me shade, and the colorful flowers that make me smile. I am grateful for the birds that sing, the rivers that flow, and the mountains that stand tall. Nature teaches me about the beauty of life and the importance of taking care of our planet.

In conclusion, there are many things I am grateful for. My family, health, education, nature, and the challenges I face. These things make me who I am and fill my life with joy and meaning. I believe that being grateful makes us happier and more positive. So, let’s always remember to be thankful for the good things in our life.

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Essay About Being Grateful: 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Looking at life in a more appreciative way is key to success and happiness. Read this guide if you want to write an essay about being grateful.

Keeping a positive outlook on life can be challenging in a world where we constantly hear bad news. However, it is important to stop focusing on the negative and become more grateful for what we have.

Being grateful is a principal practice to follow to live a healthy, productive life. Even when you feel like nothing good has happened, think of the simpler aspects of life, things as commonplace as having a meal, a bed to sleep on, and even waking up to another day. Being grateful can help you focus your energy on something more positive, lightening your load when life gets too heavy. 

If you want to write an essay about being grateful, here are some essay examples for inspiration. 

For help with your essay, check our round-up of best essay writing apps .

1. 7 Things That I Am Grateful For. What About You? by Steve Spring

2. how gratitude can help you through hard times by robert emmons, 3. feel and express gratitude by dr. hyder zahed, 4. the importance of being grateful by deborah jepsen, 5. choose to be grateful. it will make you happier. by arthur c. brooks, 1. what is gratitude to you, 2. what are you grateful for, 3. why should you be more grateful, 4. is gratitude still “good” even if you don’t mean it, 5. why has gratitude become such a hot topic.

“I have a lot to be grateful for. If I had been born in another time or place my life might have been very different. I might not have had been blessed with the life I have now. I have an amazing life. It is great to be focused on my goals and trying to improve my life…But, I need to make sure that I am taking some time to be grateful for everything and everyone that I have in my life. If you want to be happy you need to learn to be grateful. What are you grateful for today?”

Spring lists seven things he is grateful for and explains why he is thankful for each. These include his home, food, and, most significantly, the mistakes he has made in the past. He provides excellent insight into why he is grateful for these seemingly basic items and does an excellent job of justifying his points. Ultimately, the takeaway from this article is that while life is not perfect, we always have a lot to be grateful for. Gratitude is a choice.

“Being grateful is a choice, a prevailing attitude that endures and is relatively immune to the gains and losses that flow in and out of our lives. When disaster strikes, gratitude provides a perspective from which we can view life in its entirety and not be overwhelmed by temporary circumstances. Yes, this perspective is hard to achieve—but my research says it is worth the effort.”

This essay reflects on being grateful even when experiencing tough times. It is easy to be grateful when all is well in our lives.

Robert Emmons suggests performing a comparison between good times and bad times. You may then realize that your situation is better than you thought. He also says that rather than thinking about a difficult time or a particular challenge in a negative light, we can think about it in the sense that it has helped us grow, making it something to be grateful for. 

Embracing gratitude can be a challenge in itself, but it is ultimately self-serving. Being grateful makes you count your blessings and makes you feel good.

“For, whatever you genuinely feel grateful for, you will have multiply in your life. Think about it, if you gave a gift to another and that person told you, ‘I am so grateful for the gift. I can’t believe how kind you were to give it to me. You have made me so very happy,’ you’d want to give that person another gift. So you could be feeling genuinely appreciated while at the same time bring a little happiness to another.”

Zahed, in his essay, reminds us to be grateful for everything that contributes to our happiness and wellbeing, no matter how small. Similar to Emmons, he also discusses turning sorrow and disaster into something to be grateful for, in a sense. Being grateful is a commitment that we must choose to enhance our lives. It’s all about how you measure your success.

“Gratitude promotes optimism and helps us to develop a more positive outlook. It lets us pause for a moment to reflect on something we have in our life right now instead of always striving for more … the next goal, the new dress, the new toy, the new car, or the house renovation …Gratitude is simply cultivating a genuine appreciation for what we already have.”

From a more scientific perspective, Jepsen discusses the health benefits of gratitude, both psychological and physical. Gratitude makes us more optimistic and helps us reflect on what we have rather than constantly wanting more. She also encourages readers to share their appreciation with others, even through something as simple as a smile. 

“Be honest: When was the last time you were grateful for the spots on a trout? More seriously, think of the small, useless things you experience — the smell of fall in the air, the fragment of a song that reminds you of when you were a kid. Give thanks.”

This opinion piece by Arthur C is similar to the other works on this list. Brooks encourages readers to choose gratitude. He says that acting grateful can help you feel grateful and that being grateful can uplift the mood of those around us. Gratitude offers benefits for the individual and the collective. Finally, he says to find gratitude in everything, no matter how small it is. 

Essay Prompts About Being Grateful

Consider how you were introduced to the concept of gratitude as a child. Was it discussed with you, and were you encouraged to express gratitude, or is it something you have come to understand and appreciate in adulthood? How do you personally feel about being grateful? Are there any experiences in which you wish you acted more gratefully? Explore gratitude through your own experience.

As illustrated by Steve Spring, it can be beneficial to list the things you are grateful for and maybe discover a few more you had not considered along the way. Categorize aspects of your life and the parts for which you are grateful. You could then perform a comparison with someone from a different background or country and speculate on how your lists may differ. Finally, consider how quickly a person’s life can change. Should tragedy befall you, would you still be able to find things to be grateful for?

This angle allows you to showcase inspirational examples of the benefits of gratitude. Why is it important to be grateful and maintain a positive outlook on life? And what do people get out of it? The essay examples above offer excellent sources for this prompt. There are measurable benefits.

Some would say it is important to show gratitude even if you don’t mean it sincerely. Others argue that it would be worse to be insincere. What do you think? Does insincerity qualify as gratitude, even if you try to be polite or act kindly to spare someone’s feelings? Or is genuine gratitude something else altogether? If we cannot offer sincere thanks, are we actually being grateful?

In recent times people are talking more about the benefits of gratitude and researching to prove its merits. The popularity of gratitude journaling is vast; you can purchase bespoke gratitude journals to record your thoughts on the topic daily and even take a course to learn how to do it. Investigate where this trend originated and examine how it has been embraced throughout society.  

If you’d like to learn more, in this guide our writer explains how to write an argumentative essay .

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Essence of Gratitude: The Power of Appreciation

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

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Gratitude Essay Examples

An essay on gratitude can be an excellent opportunity to reflect on the things in life that we often take for granted. It’s a chance to acknowledge the people, experiences, and things that have made a positive impact on our lives. If you’re struggling to get started, here are some gratitude essay examples and tips to help you craft a perfect essay on gratitude.

One way to approach an essay on gratitude is to reflect on specific instances where you’ve experienced gratitude in your life. For example, you might write about a time when someone went out of their way to help you or when you received unexpected kindness from a stranger. These examples can help you illustrate the power of gratitude in our lives and show how it can change our perspective on the world.

Another approach is to write about the benefits of gratitude. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can improve mental health, boost happiness, and even enhance physical health. You can explore these benefits in your essay and provide examples of how you’ve experienced them in your own life.

If you’re a college student, consider writing a gratitude college essay. In this essay, you can reflect on how college has shaped you and the opportunities it has provided. You might write about a professor who inspired you or a project that challenged you in new ways. By expressing gratitude for your college experience, you’ll be able to showcase your growth and appreciation for the opportunities you’ve had.

Overall, an essay on gratitude can be a powerful tool for personal growth and reflection. By exploring gratitude in your life, you’ll be able to recognize the good things that are often overlooked and find ways to cultivate more gratitude in your daily life. Use the gratitude essay examples and tips above to craft a perfect essay on gratitude and let your gratitude shine through your words.

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How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times

A decade’s worth of research on gratitude has shown me that when life is going well, gratitude allows us to celebrate and magnify the goodness. But what about when life goes badly? In the midst of the economic maelstrom that has gripped our country, I have often been asked if people can—or even should—feel grateful under such dire circumstances.

This essay is adapted from Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity .

My response is that not only will a grateful attitude help—it is essential . In fact, it is precisely under crisis conditions when we have the most to gain by a grateful perspective on life. In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize. In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope. In other words, gratitude can help us cope with hard times.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that gratitude will come easily or naturally in a crisis. It’s easy to feel grateful for the good things. No one “feels” grateful that they have lost a job or a home or good health or has taken a devastating hit on their retirement portfolio.

But it is vital to make a distinction between feeling grateful and being grateful. We don’t have total control over our emotions. We cannot easily will ourselves to feel grateful, less depressed, or happy. Feelings follow from the way we look at the world, thoughts we have about the way things are, the way things should be, and the distance between these two points.

But being grateful is a choice, a prevailing attitude that endures and is relatively immune to the gains and losses that flow in and out of our lives. When disaster strikes, gratitude provides a perspective from which we can view life in its entirety and not be overwhelmed by temporary circumstances. Yes, this perspective is hard to achieve—but my research says it is worth the effort.

Remember the bad

Trials and suffering can actually refine and deepen gratefulness if we allow them to show us not to take things for granted. Our national holiday of gratitude, Thanksgiving, was born and grew out of hard times. The first Thanksgiving took place after nearly half the pilgrims died from a rough winter and year. It became a national holiday in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War and was moved to its current date in the 1930s following the Depression.

Why? Well, when times are good, people take prosperity for granted and begin to believe that they are invulnerable. In times of uncertainty, though, people realize how powerless they are to control their own destiny. If you begin to see that everything you have, everything you have counted on, may be taken away, it becomes much harder to take it for granted.

The Gratitude Project

What if we didn't take good things for granted? Learn how gratitude can lead to a better life—and a better world—in this new GGSC book.

So crisis can make us more grateful—but research says gratitude also helps us cope with crisis. Consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall. There is scientific evidence that grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals. The contrast between suffering and redemption serves as the basis for one of my tips for practicing gratitude: remember the bad.

It works this way: Think of the worst times in your life, your sorrows, your losses, your sadness—and then remember that here you are, able to remember them, that you made it through the worst times of your life, you got through the trauma, you got through the trial, you endured the temptation, you survived the bad relationship, you’re making your way out of the dark. Remember the bad things, then look to see where you are now.

This process of remembering how difficult life used to be and how far we have come sets up an explicit contrast that is fertile ground for gratefulness. Our minds think in terms of counterfactuals—mental comparisons we make between the way things are and how things might have been different. Contrasting the present with negative times in the past can make us feel happier (or at least less unhappy) and enhance our overall sense of well-being. This opens the door to coping gratefully.

Try this little exercise. First, think about one of the unhappiest events you have experienced. How often do you find yourself thinking about this event today? Does the contrast with the present make you feel grateful and pleased? Do you realize your current life situation is not as bad as it could be? Try to realize and appreciate just how much better your life is now. The point is not to ignore or forget the past but to develop a fruitful frame of reference in the present from which to view experiences and events.

There’s another way to foster gratitude: confront your own mortality. In a recent study, researchers asked participants to imagine a scenario where they are trapped in a burning high rise, overcome by smoke, and killed. This resulted in a substantial increase in gratitude levels, as researchers discovered when they compared this group to two control conditions who were not compelled to imagine their own deaths.

In these ways, remembering the bad can help us to appreciate the good. As the German theologian and Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” We know that gratitude enhances happiness, but why? Gratitude maximizes happiness in multiple ways, and one reason is that it helps us reframe memories of unpleasant events in a way that decreases their unpleasant emotional impact. This implies that grateful coping entails looking for positive consequences of negative events. For example, grateful coping might involve seeing how a stressful event has shaped who we are today and has prompted us to reevaluate what is really important in life.

Reframing disaster

To say that gratitude is a helpful strategy to handle hurt feelings does not mean that we should try to ignore or deny suffering and pain.

The GGSC's coverage of gratitude is sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation as part of our Expanding Gratitude project.

The field of positive psychology has at times been criticized for failing to acknowledge the value of negative emotions. Barbara Held of Bowdoin College in Maine, for example, contends that positive psychology has been too negative about negativity and too positive about positivity. To deny that life has its share of disappointments, frustrations, losses, hurts, setbacks, and sadness would be unrealistic and untenable. Life is suffering. No amount of positive thinking exercises will change this truth.

So telling people simply to buck up, count their blessings, and remember how much they still have to be grateful for can certainly do much harm. Processing a life experience through a grateful lens does not mean denying negativity. It is not a form of superficial happiology. Instead, it means realizing the power you have to transform an obstacle into an opportunity. It means reframing a loss into a potential gain, recasting negativity into positive channels for gratitude.

A growing body of research has examined how grateful recasting works. In a study conducted at Eastern Washington University, participants were randomly assigned to one of three writing groups that would recall and report on an unpleasant open memory—a loss, a betrayal, victimization, or some other personally upsetting experience. The first group wrote for 20 minutes on issues that were irrelevant to their open memory. The second wrote about their experience pertaining to their open memory.

Researchers asked the third group to focus on the positive aspects of a difficult experience—and discover what about it might now make them feel grateful. Results showed that they demonstrated more closure and less unpleasant emotional impact than participants who just wrote about the experience without being prompted to see ways it might be redeemed with gratitude. Participants were never told not to think about the negative aspects of the experience or to deny or ignore the pain. Moreover, participants who found reasons to be grateful demonstrated fewer intrusive memories, such as wondering why it happened, whether it could have been prevented, or if they believed they caused it to happen. Thinking gratefully, this study showed, can help heal troubling memories and in a sense redeem them—a result echoed in many other studies.

Some years ago, I asked people with debilitating physical illnesses to compose a narrative concerning a time when they felt a deep sense of gratitude to someone or for something. I asked them to let themselves re-create that experience in their minds so that they could feel the emotions as if they had transported themselves back in time to the event itself. I also had them reflect on what they felt in that situation and how they expressed those feelings. In the face of progressive diseases, people often find life extremely challenging, painful, and frustrating. I wondered whether it would even be possible for them to find anything to be grateful about. For many of them, life revolved around visits to the pain clinic and pharmacy. I would not have been at all surprised if resentment overshadowed gratefulness.

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As it turned out, most respondents had trouble settling on a specific instance—they simply had so much in their lives that they were grateful for. I was struck by the profound depth of feeling that they conveyed in their essays, and by the apparent life-transforming power of gratitude in many of their lives.

It was evident from reading these narrative accounts that (1) gratitude can be an overwhelmingly intense feeling, (2) gratitude for gifts that others easily overlook most can be the most powerful and frequent form of thankfulness, and (3) gratitude can be chosen in spite of one’s situation or circumstances. I was also struck by the redemptive twist that occurred in nearly half of these narratives: out of something bad (suffering, adversity, affliction) came something good (new life or new opportunities) for which the person felt profoundly grateful.

If you are troubled by an open memory or a past unpleasant experience, you might consider trying to reframe how you think about it using the language of thankfulness. The unpleasant experiences in our lives don’t have to be of the traumatic variety in order for us to gratefully benefit from them. Whether it is a large or small event, here are some additional questions to ask yourself:

• What lessons did the experience teach me?
• Can I find ways to be thankful for what happened to me now even though I was not at the time it happened?
• What ability did the experience draw out of me that surprised me?
• How am I now more the person I want to be because of it? Have my negative feelings about the experience limited or prevented my ability to feel gratitude in the time since it occurred?
• Has the experience removed a personal obstacle that previously prevented me from feeling grateful?

Remember, your goal is not to relive the experience but rather to get a new perspective on it. Simply rehearsing an upsetting event makes us feel worse about it. That is why catharsis has rarely been effective. Emotional venting without accompanying insight does not produce change. No amount of writing about the event will help unless you are able to take a fresh, redemptive perspective on it. This is an advantage that grateful people have—and it is a skill that anyone can learn.

About the Author

Robert Emmons

University of california, davis.

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. , is the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude. He is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology . He is the author of the books Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity and Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier .

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Things that i’m Grateful for

This essay will reflect on the things to be grateful for in life, discussing the importance of gratitude for mental health, relationships, and overall well-being. More free essay examples are accessible at PapersOwl about Faith.

How it works

My coonhound Oliver is a good dog. When we went camping last month, he found himself a small, dirty rag to sleep on. He scratched at it from every direction, spinning round and round until the bed was just right, and then plopped down with a satisfied groan. This was not a groan of discontent, but rather an expression of gratitude. Oliver doesn’t care that his bed is a dirty old rage; he is simply being grateful for a master who feeds him and takes him camping.

So if a dog can be happy with so little, why are we so unappreciative? One little thing can send us flying over the edge.

Maybe it’s because we get up every morning only because we have to, grumble our way through the day, and lastly go to bed knowing that the same scenario waits for tomorrow. Adam and Eve found themselves in a similar situation in the Garden of Eden. They had so much to be grateful for, but chose to rebel instead. All their needs were covered by God, yet they chose to sample the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, opening the gates of sin, and condemning man to a life of ingratitude. Indeed, the Bible tells us that as Adam was being evicted, the first words out of his mouth were, Lord, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.'[1] Rather than giving thanks for the Garden, Adam chose to blame God for getting kicked out. It’s not that getting up in the morning is so difficult. It’s getting up knowing that we’re not going to receive what we think we are entitled to from other people.

They say that the only guarantee in life is death and taxes, yet we expect much more than that from the people we deal with. We expect them to guarantee our happiness. It seems that the bigger our sense of entitlement, the more ingratitude we exhibit. We experience life through our demands, and struggle to balance our giving with other’s taking. Then, when our perception of giving is dwarfed by their taking, we become downright ungracious and unappreciative of their efforts. We can’t control what others do, but we can control our reaction to it. If we don’t control our reactions, the feelings of entitlement often lead to more disappointment and dissatisfaction. The words from the song, Love is Blue, “Green, green my jealous heart”[2] describe one of the chief components of ingratitude. Jealousy. It’s been around for a long time. Shakespeare described jealousy and ingratitude as a green-eyed monster in the tragic play, Othello. [3] The bible says in James 3:16 “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”[4] Envious people are everywhere, going through life angry over the seemingly unearned blessings which are given to others.

They want the same advantages and resent people for what they have. It’s impossible to be grateful when you covet your neighbor’s belongings. By comparing what we don’t have to what others possess, we reduce our ability to appreciate the blessings in our own lives. Many people believe that money brings happiness. This is because we have all been indoctrinated to be good consumers and all success is judged on a scale of financed wealth. However, the Bible tells us that “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”[6] It also states in Matthew 6:19, ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. “[5] Gratitude provides perspective in life, and those who lack appreciation miss the big picture. Life is not all about me. No one wants to associate with disagreeable people and such people miss out on the connectivity that we all take for granted.

It’s distressing to think of all the good times that have been forfeited because of ingratitude. No one really thinks of themselves, or likes to think of themselves, as an ingrate, but according to a study conducted by the Royal Society Open Science, Americans were found to show gratitude “less than 14.5 percent of the time”. [5] This means that approximately 85.5 percent of the time, Americans did not express gratitude and they showed a lack of appreciation 6 times more often than were grateful. It’s a big problem because ingratitude affects how we perceive our quality of life. My dad challenged us to compare our positive statements against our negative statements. He said that a good ratio would be 10 to 1. I took him up on his challenge and found my ratio to be exactly 10 to 1…in the wrong direction! Nowadays, my goal is to bring the ratio to parity, or roughly one nice statement for every critical statement. Oh yeah, just thinking something nice doesn’t count; you actually have to do it. With all the blessings that we enjoy as Americans, you would think it might be tough to see EVERYTHING in a negative light.

I mean, it takes work to count all the problems and dilemmas surrounding every situation and then to spew out vitriolic words on our friends and family. Actually it’s not–if you practice, and I’ve had 13 years to perfect this rather unworthy skill. On the other hand, it’s easy to see things in a positive light, even when problems arise. My friend, Julie, is just like this. Even when something goes wrong, she looks for the silver lining. And if she can’t find one, she simply states that something good will eventually come out of whatever she’s going through and it’s all part of God’s master plan. According to R.L Adams, “Gratitude can improve your life by strengthening your faith. There’s a deep appreciation for things that arise when people are grateful.” In fact, it becomes instilled into their very being. Therefore, it strengthens their faith and belief in all things. “For me, it’s my belief in God and the realization truly grateful for everything in my life, including my problems.” [6] Gratitude can transform your faith by instilling the belief that you’re not alone; whatever it is that you’re going through will pass, and you’ll emerge victorious.

You’ll accomplish your goals, overcome your obstacles, and become a better person, one who’s more compassionate to the troubles of others. As a result of all of this, you will be able to search for opportunities because you realize that what you have truly is enough, and that the focus must be caring for the spiritual and physical needs of others. That’s when true spiritual enlightenment begins. Gratitude is important because it is giving ourselves permission to finally be happy. Today I am grateful for food, shelter, clothing, the list could continue forever. Unfortunately, for many, these luxuries don’t exist. But anyone’s list can be simpler than that. I’m also grateful that I can smile, that I can walk, or even that there is fresh air to breathe. Many times we forget about these things until they are lost. Just like how my dog Oliver is extremely grateful for that small dirty rag, I can be grateful for the small things in my life. Oliver is not focusing on how he doesn’t have a five-star hotel bed to sleep on, but basks in the blissful ignorance of knowing that his needs are covered.

He knows how lucky and fortunate he is to have a place to sleep at all. In the same way, count your blessings instead of your misfortunes. You will never run out of either, but I choose happiness. Gratitude can truly change and transform your life. But it doesn’t happen overnight. Nothing ever does. Even when things are going terribly, I know that I can be grateful for a God who cares. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”[7] We always have things to be grateful for, if we trust in the Lord. ] There is no need to force our adversary to do anything when God can shoulder the burden for us. Current Housing and Urban Secretary Ben Carson has said, ‘Just do our best and let God do the rest.'[9] When we truly put our troubles in God’s hand, we can afford rest. Being grateful and content is not about what you have, it’s about who you are inside. Ungratefulness doesn’t happen by accident but we are part of why it happens. The Bible states in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”

Whether you know it, you always have things to be grateful for. Did you see the sunrise this morning? It was beautiful. Whether you fell like it or not, still rejoice in the Lord. If you don’t feel like being grateful, then that’s even better because it’s sacrifice. It can something as simple as being grateful that you didn’t honk at that person who took the last space in the mall parking lot. We can be grateful because we have a God who promises to protect us all the time. When we are grateful, our light shines through for others to see the work that Jesus does in our lives.    

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Thankfulness / The Power of Thankfulness: How Gratitude Has Transformed My Life

The Power of Thankfulness: How Gratitude Has Transformed My Life

• Category: Life
• Topic: Thankfulness

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• Keep a gratitude journal: Write down a list of things that you are thankful for each day, no matter how big or small they may be. This will help you to focus on the positive aspects of your life and develop a sense of appreciation for the many blessings that you have.
• Express your gratitude to others: Take the time to express your gratitude to the people in your life who have made a positive impact on you. This could be as simple as sending a thank-you note, or taking someone out for coffee to express your appreciation for their friendship or support.
• Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present in the moment, without judgment or distraction. By cultivating a sense of mindfulness, you can develop a greater appreciation for the present moment and the many wonders of the world around you.
• Volunteer your time: Volunteering your time to help others is a powerful way to cultivate gratitude. By giving back to your community and helping those in need, you can develop a greater sense of purpose and meaning in your life.
• Take care of your body: Taking care of your physical health is an important way to cultivate thankfulness. By nourishing your body with healthy foods, getting enough sleep, and engaging in regular exercise, you can develop a greater sense of appreciation for the amazing capabilities of your body.

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