The Musing today is again taken from the book Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.
People with grateful hearts are easily contented, while ungrateful people are subject to bitterness and discontent.
David Brainerd was sick and unhealthy for most of his young, tuberculosis-shortened life. Not exactly the kind of condition with which to brave the wilds of the wintry Northeast, enduring blizzards, starvation, and long days of want to minister all by himself to the Native Americans of western Massachusetts in the mid-1700s.
One time, after falling ill once again in his little hut, he wrote in his now-famous journals, “Blessed be the Lord that I am not exposed in the open air. I have a house and many of the comforts of life to support me.” On another occasion, having faced long weeks of solitude, “forging through swamps on rocky terrain through dark nights and cut off from all human companionship,” he wrote, “What reason for thankfulness I have on account of this retirement.” (italics added). Contact with people was nice, he said, but being alone with God drew him into intimacy with his Savior. He could choose to the thankful for that.
Yes, grateful people are easily contented, while the ungrateful easily become prisoners to bitterness.
I have spoken with many women who are chronically unhappy, “down”, or depressed. The details and reasons vary, of course. But I have become increasingly convinced, after lots of these kinds of conversations, that one of the chief reasons behind a pervasive sense of blues and blahness is a failure to be thankful.
Ungrateful people tent to hold tightly to their rights. And when others fail to perform the way they want or expect them to, they feel justified in making demands and retaliating emotionally.
It’s the opposite of what we see in the life of Ruth in the Old Testament who, having lost home and husband and finding herself alone with a cantankerous mother-in-law in the unfamiliar environs of Bethlehem, chose to accept whatever God provided and expressed gratitude for the simplest kindness of Boaz. She never forgot that she was a foreigner, undeserving of the least favor from anyone.
Like little Richie in the Dick Van Dyke Show, who squealed with glee when his dad returned from work and reached into his pocket, producing the only present he had brought home for him that day—a paper clip—it shouldn’t take much to make us grateful.
As Matthew Henry said so beautifully, “When we have no other answer to the suggestions of grief and fear, we may have recourse to this: ‘I thank Thee, O Father.’”
What a difference gratitude makes.
Making It Personal: As a rule, are you easily contented with what God provides, or do you find yourself resenting difficult circumstances or people and becoming demanding or depressed when others fail to meet your expectations?
Something to think about indeed. Hopefully you were able to be thankful in not only the big things this Thanksgiving but also in the little things. Just like the line from one of my favorite Veggie Tale songs says, “A thankful heart is a happy heart.”
May you have a happy heart this day!