If I asked you what you think might be the most powerful weapon against the evil forces who are currently working against every human being on the face of the planet, what would you say that was? Love? Faith? Prayer? Worship?
Well you’d be right. If you don’t believe me, go read Ephesians 6 which outlines the armor of God for the purpose of fighting against the evil that is constantly plotting against all of creation. But what if I told you there was one simple strategy that would stregthen every single piece of that armor at the same time? Interested? Yeah, me too. That’s what gratitude does. When I am daily in the pratice of intentional gratitude, I am stregthened in almost every other area of my walk with Jesus. Do you want to be able to love Jesus and others well? Practice gratitude. Want to engage in meaningful worship and prayer? Gratitude. Do you want to increase your faith and trust in the Lord? Practice gratitude.
It makes sense because gratitude is when you let go of things that you don’t have, and even just for a moment you are aglow with the amazing awe and wonder that comes from thanking the Father for his good gifts.
“But Sam, I don’t have anything to be thankful for!”
Friend, I’m not saying there may not be some crappy stuff going on in your life, but if Paul can author a huge portion of the new testament (which is chalk full of gratitude) from a prison cell while facing the very real possibility of being executed many days over, you can find something to be grateful for. Are you breathing? Thank Jesus. Are you able to speak, walk, sing, move? Thank Jesus. Are you going through a trial? THANK JESUS. (Go read James 1:2-4 if that last one threw you for a loop.)
Here are 3 practical and easy ways to help you practice daily graditude:
1. Start a gratitude journal. 
There’s something so powerful about spoken and written words. Writing something down just seems to give it more weight-enter the gratitude journal. There isn’t just one way to journal gratitude, and honestly I’ve tried a few ways that didn’t really work for me. Whatever way you choose, be on the lookout for your gratitude turning into a chore. Find a way to do it that is easy and quick and that you will ENJOY. There’s a million different gratitude journals on the market that you can buy. Some have daily prompts, some are blank, some have devotionals and verses attached- to be honest, a gratitude journal can be a regular old notebook.
When I was in college I worked at the gym on campus, and sometimes that job came with a lot of downtime (there’s only so many times you can wipe down weights and yoga mats in an empty gym at 6:00 in the morning). We weren’t allowed to have our phones or do homework while we were on shift, so sometimes while I was sitting alone at the desk downstairs I would take a couple of pieces of the recycled scratch paper we had for writing down customer notes and just write a couple of prayers to God. More often than not, I was just thanking God for random small things. At the end of my shift, I would take those little paper scraps home and stick them in a little box. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but I was making a gratitude journal.
Nowadays, I use an app called Gratitude. (This post has a list of gratitude apps and the very first one is the one I use!) I use the free version of Gratitude, though you can pay for the extra perks if you want to. I think the only downside of the free version is that your journal isn’t backed up on anything so if you lose your phone or get rid of the app you’ll lose what you saved. Something that I love about journaling gratitide this way is that I get to add pictures to any entry that I want. That means that if I’m struggling with thinking of something to be grateful for I can look through the pictures on my phone and that usually provides inspiration. The app also gives you prompts if you want and you can set a notification to remind you! (Btw, I’m not being paid by the makers of this app for saying any of this… your welcome Gratitude for the free advertising. 😉) Whatever way you choose to journal remember that the purpose is to think about the good things and change negative thoughts into positive ones.
2. Start and end your day with graditude. 
This one is simple, but also so effective. I am NOT a morning person, but honestly waking up to your alarm with thoughts like “Ugh, I don’t want to go to work” or “I’m so tired” or “I hate my life” (No kidding, I actually used to think that last one just because my alarm was going off…) doesn’t exactly set a good precedent for the day. I know it seems like a little thing, but it can change your whole mindset if you strive to make your first thoughts positive ones. I really struggled with this, so I use music. The first thing I do when I wake up is play a worship song, that way it’s a lot harder for those complaining thoughts to worm their way in. You can also set your alarm to be a worship song, but when I tried that I started to really hate that song (seriously not a morning person 😆).
In the same way, you can also affect your sleep by ending your day with gratitude. This article by PsycologyToday lists 2 different studies that show how gratitude can positively impact both length and quality of sleep. So let the last thoughts you have before your eyes drift close be thoughts of thankfulness!
3. Surround yourself with grateful people. 
There is something to be said about who you choose to spend your time with. When you spend long enough around someone you will eventually be influenced by their behaviors. Sometimes those influences are positive-like a friend who eats really healthy foods may inspire you to change your diet. Sometimes those influences are negative-like a friend who is really critical of others or always negative toward themselves. Eventually those thoughts will start to creep into your inner dialogue. Should we cut those people out of our lives and never speak to them again? Not necessarily. But we do need to be careful around those people. When I was teaching, there was a lot to complain about- if you think teaching is easy then I dare you to go spend a day in an elementary classroom. However, just because I had something worthy of complaining about didn’t mean that I should be making that my sole mindset (or should I say soul mindset 😉). I noticed that some collegues were pros at taking any conversation and steering it toward a good long trading of woes. This is where it gets tricky, where to draw the line between much needed venting and soul-sucking complaining? Honestly, I’m not really sure… but when your negative thoughts start to outweigh your positive ones, I’d say it’s time to reassess. After a conversation think about whether or not it made you feel better or worse. Did it help you become better at your job? Or did it just discourage you? If you feel worse and discouraged then that’s the kind of conversation to watch out for!
Okay so you’re going to be on the lookout for positive people in your physical life, but let’s talk about your digital one. Social media has the potential for equal parts good and evil, and I think that the way you use it will define it’s influence on your life. I keep using the word influence, but social media has it’s own term and you probably alrady know it-influencer.
An influencer is someone who has the power to affect the thoughts, actions, and purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
Whoa. That’s a lot of power to give someone over your life! Influencers can be a great way to inspire you, show you great products, make you laugh and entertain you, but they can also do the complete opposite! I challenge you to take a scroll through your social media feed and think about the people that you follow. Are they uplifting? Encouraging? Do they help you to adopt a feeling of gratitude? If you can scroll for more than 5 minutes and not find a single person like that then it’s time to start hitting the unfollow button. Make no mistake, what you are engaging with on social media WILL affect the ways you think. Need some suggestions of who to follow? Here’s a list of positive influencers to get you started: Bethany Hamilton, Craig Groeshel, Tabitha Brown, Jennifer Gardner, Steven Furtick, Laura Clery and so many more!
There you have it! 3 easy ways to start stretching your thanking muscles. I’ll leave you with this- thankfulness leaves you full of goodness (the word FULL is literally in the word thankfulness) and when you are full of the good the bad has nowhere to get in!
