Gratitude
We invite you to explore a variety of resources. We have categorized them by activity, and they represent a variety of approaches to living a Christian life. This menu is not designed as a “to-do” list, but rather as an offering for individuals to sample and find the activities that bring them closer to God in this particular practice.
We express gratitude when we are thankful for particular blessings, for the “good things” in life. When we show gratitude in more challenging times, though, we acknowledge our trust in God to be present and bring good from all things. As we move through this season of gratitude, practice giving thanks to God for everything in your life, but most of all God’s loving presence.
“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us—and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace. . . .””
Watch & Listen
A Grateful Day with Brother David Steindl-Rast (5 minutes)
Jesus the Ingrate: The Subversive Power of Gratitude with Diana Butler Bass (22 minutes)
Cultivating our Awareness and Response to Gratitude / Society of Saint John the Evangelist
More than just a feeling, gratitude is actually a practice: one we can cultivate and even develop, which will transform our experience of ourselves, our lives, and our world. Br. David Vryhof offers practical encouragement for rediscovering this essential, countercultural practice. Find out why there is always reason for gratitude. (10 minutes)
How to Be Grateful in Every Moment (but Not for Everything) / OnBeing with Krista Tippett and Brother David Steindl-Rast
A conversation with Br. David Steindl-Rast, who makes useful distinctions around experiences that are life-giving and resilience-making yet can feel absurd to speak of in a moment like this. A Benedictine monk for over 60 years, Steindl-Rast was formed by 20th-century catastrophes. He calls joy “the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” And his gratefulness is not an easy gratitude or thanksgiving — but a full-blooded, reality-based practice and choice. (51 minutes)
Read
Five Ways to Grow Grateful Kids / from the Christian Reformed Church of North America
As Christ-followers, we don’t just practice gratitude because it’s good for our health (although it is!), or only when things go smoothly. Our gratitude flows from an awareness that, regardless of our circumstance, God loves us and is with us. Here are five tips for cultivating grateful living with your family.
Simple Words of Gratitude / article by Richard J. Foster
“Gratitude brought me to the ability to collapse into God’s providence, and so with a playful smile I relinquished — ’Oh you just do what you want with this situation and I’ll say thank you.’”
Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks / book by Diana Butler Bass
We know that gratitude is good, but many of us find it hard to sustain a meaningful life of gratefulness. Four out of five Americans report feeling gratitude on a regular basis, but those private feelings seem disconnected from larger concerns of our public lives. In Grateful, cultural observer and theologian Diana Butler Bass takes on this “gratitude gap” and offers up surprising, relevant, and powerful insights to practice gratitude.
Do
This simple activity involves a pumpkin, a Sharpie, and a list of things for which you are grateful.
Gratitude Challenges from United Thank Offering
Four weeks of practices online and at home to grow a more grateful heart by responding to God’s Gift of Creation. (printable .pdf)
Ripples: An Exploration of Gratitude
Begin this gratitude exploration with what’s closest to you: your own self. Then move outward in your exploration like ripples in a pond…
“There is always reason for gratitude. Expressing gratitude in difficult times is an expression of trust in God, and an acknowledgment that God is present and at work in every time and place, always bringing life out of death, hope out of despair, joy out of sadness – even when we can’t see it. Gratitude will not take away every pain or sorrow, but it will transform us in the midst of them. ”
Pray
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reads the Prayer for the Right Use of God’s Gifts, from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 827
Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A 7-Day Guide to Gratitude: Growing in Awareness, Practice, and Prayer of Thanks
Diana Butler Bass
Thanksgivings from the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 836-841.
“Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world. for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.”
