What Changes Us

One of our little three-year-old grandsons a few weeks ago asked for a banana on an ordinary  afternoon.  In trying to help him learn manners, we often pace him through the words "May I please have a banana?"  And after his request has been fulfilled, we ask, "What do you say?"  so he will know politely how to respond: "Thank you!"

On this particular afternoon, as I handed this tiny little guy his requested piece of fruit, he intentionally looked up at me and said spontaneously, "Oh, thank you so much for this banana," gazing right into my eyes, and quite frankly, right into my heart.  No prompts needed.

He was not just repeating a socially correct set of words.  But responding with gratitude.

We are often all-too-silent, rarely verbally expressing our thankfulness in heart-felt words to those who give, to those who have given to us, and to God who has given us everything.  How often do we acknowledge, "I'm really grateful for that."     

Words make a greater difference than we can know, not just in a social construct of being polite, nor in gushy sentiment.  But words of thankfulness and gratitude actually change our hearts, rewire our brains, change our vision in a situation, and ultimately change the trajectory of our lives.  What kind of person am I becoming?

Am I seeking to be polite?  Or am I grateful?

How -- and if --I express gratitude changes how I see God, transforms how I view circumstances, and changes my interactions with all those around me.  

Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines,
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food,
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls --
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer's feet,
And He will make me walk on my high places.

                              Habakkuk 3. 16-19

Our daily choices, habits and practices develop how we think, what we think about, on what we set our minds, impacting radically how we live, how we love others, and how we see God.

A mind that is always focused on what is lacking is never satisfied, always looking for something else and something more.  Taking a given set of circumstances, favorable or not, the difference is not between seeing my cup as half-empty or half-full. But when I see my cup as overflowing, as it states in Psalm 23, that gratefulness spills out even in the lives of others.  God does not just give.  God multiplies.   God is already here providing for us, even in unexpected ways and unlikely situations.  

Find one thing today to be thankful for.  Being grateful will not change our circumstances, but that little exercise in verbalizing it, that change of heart, that way of seeing, changes us more than we can know.

It's still just a banana.  But it tastes differently.

Rejoice always,
pray constantly,
give thanks in all circumstances.

               1 Thessalonians 5. 16-18