‘Tis the Season to Give Thanks: For Gifts of Gratitude and Praise

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy,  and I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 28:6-7

In my quest for becoming more what God wants me to be, I have been focusing not only on the spiritual side, but the physical side. I have finally found the will (been given by God, I am convinced) to work on my weight and physical well-being that too often have been pushed aside in my life.

I am a searcher and researcher by nature. This week I found help and God’s wisdom in the strangest place: a blog by a body builder/health guru named Shaun Hadsall. He has given me permission to use his column. He is obviously a dedicated Christian family man, evidenced by his writing and the scripture he quoted in his article. I will paraphrase and summarize his words:

What Keeps Us From Getting Our Dream Body and Being Truly Happy? 1. Looking for happiness in all the wrong places. 2. Envy. 3. A sense of Entitlement and 4. Lack of Gratitude. The last one is the BIGGIE and it’s where our secret to happiness lies because it’s impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

So if you are “unhappy” all you have to do is focus on gratitude. Studies PROVE that gratitude helps you sleep better, fight off cravings, relieve stress, stimulate the pleasure center of your brain; that GRATITUDE is the closest thing to a “Magic Pill” for happiness you can take. The very LEAST you can do is take out a notebook and write down a list of everything you’re grateful for and read through it every day. Then thank God for every blessing in your life! Our creator knew this about us and gave us the instructions in His Word. 

Thank you loving God, for giving us such good advice in Your Word and for also finding it in the most unlikely places at times.

Pat Eppler