This past week, I have listened to a lot of podcasts. What hooked my attention in two of them was the speakers focus on gratitude. You know you hear something once and you think “Wow! I learned something” Then you hear it again, and you think “ok God, I see you are trying to teach me on a deeper level.”.
The first podcast I listened to was a Christian podcast and the other was a mainstream podcast and the truth that was spoken in both of them was this- gratitude changes you. Jennie Allan’s “Made For This” was my first listen, talking about the difference between authenticity and negativity. It was focused on Phil 2:14-17 where it says,
“Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.”
Philippians 2:14-16 NLT
Jennie spends the episode talking about how if we live this way, if we TRULY take hold of not complaining and grumbling, it will change us and those around us. Complaining is addictive, it’s so easy to do, and unfortunately, it spreads like wildfire…especially in the church. The quote that struck me was when she said, “There is a fine line between being real and complaining and grumbling.” Oh man. How often I’ve given into this! I’ve thought about this a lot this week as I’ve sought to be vulnerable but wise. She then shares some practical ideas for how to fight against this. The last one she shares, she references Ann Voskamp and her book 1,000 gifts. She says “Joy is contagious. So is complaining and grumbling…we can fight against it by being grateful.” When we look and remind ourselves of all the GOOD God has done, it’s so much easier for our mouths to speak goodness instead of complaint.
The other podcast I listened to had Dr. Laurie Santos as the guest, a cognitive scientist and a professor of psychology at Yale University. During CO-VID, she came out with five tips to help us through this time. And guess what her tip #4 was? Gratitude. Here are some lines I tried to speedily scribble down as I listened. “Happy people are spontaneously grateful. One of the consequences of gratitude is that it helps with self regulation. People facing temptation do better off when being grateful. When you’re grateful, you think ‘I have all these blessings, I can do these things for other people’- it causes you to be okay with self sacrifice. The data suggests that listing things you are grateful for magically helps us fight against temptations and addictions. Gratitude is part of the motivation to cooperate. Somehow magically scribbling down three things you are grateful for everyday can help us look at hard things we are facing and say “it’s ok I can deal with that”…it’s crazy, we have this superpower just sitting there that we can use.”
And there it is again. Gratitude changes us. Its not only a biblical fact, it’s a scientific one as well. I don’t know about you, but I REALLY want to be know for my joy over my grumbling.
I had plans to revamp this blog, but honestly I didn’t feel I had much worthy of sharing. So, I’m going back to it’s roots- to seek and to find joy throughout the day. I used to write everyday and I love looking back through those memories with my older two. So, I’m going to try it again. I’m going to document 1,000 gifts. I invite you to join me, too. ❤️
Choosing Inexpressible Joy 