Reposted from my discontinued Ponder blog:
Most spiritual traditions tell us that being grateful for our lives and what we have in them is a necessary component of a full life. If we believe that God needs our praise, then I can see that expressing thanks to Him in our prayers would make sense. But I have had more trouble understanding the “why” of gratitude since I don’t believe God needs us to tell Him how wonderful He is. (Jesus says this in A Course in Miracles.)
Of course, I can understand that we need gratitude. It opens our heart. And, not incidentally, it makes us just feel good. Writing about the Law of Attraction, particularly Rhonda Byrne’s The Magic, says that without gratitude our wishes for a more abundant life will fall on deaf ears in the universe. But is not a rote recall of things we are grateful for just seem to be manipulation of ultimate reality?
Our heart needs to be in the right place when we are expressing thanks for the blessings of our life. We need not to be manipulative, we need not to say “thanks” just because it does feel good.
There is a higher reason for gratitude.
I know that I appreciate my life, and that is a good start. Gratitude does warms our heart, and maybe that is reason enough to be diligent in feeling and expressing gratitude for our lives.
Gratitude does keep us in the right pathway back to God. Separation healed, we are on our way.
When I marvel at the loving intricate detail with which my angelic team gets me into and out of some of these assignments safely, they tell me that it’s a pleasure to work on behalf of one who expresses her gratitude for their efforts so frequently and so wholeheartedly…
When I actually FEEL gratitude, not just express it, my body relaxes into love.
Agreed. Gratitude was the key for me. Like you said, not routinely writing a list or saying a list but truly feeling it and tapping into that heart energy and trying to radiate it outward.
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