“Gratitude = Happiness and real Joy”
True quotes to reflect on:
“No misfortune is so bad that complaining about it doesn’t make it worse.” Jeffrey R. Holland
“There can be no joy without gratitude.” Richard Paul Evans
“Gratitude = Happiness – and satisfaction, inner peace, and more joyful and loving relationships.” Carlos Caza
Important questions to ponder: How much of an effect for good, joy, and inner peace would it have on all your relationships? – – – if you chose to be deeply grateful in every important relationship in your life and verbalize it daily to God, your family members, and others? Isn’t it true that showing deep, real gratitude and appreciation in relationships with God, family members, and others is very similar to expressing love and would bring much more joy, love, and inner peace to each of those relationships?
True story to ponder: One day, Jesus Christ healed 10 lepers of the most dreaded, feared, and miserable disease of that day. And afterward, only one of them thanked him again, and nine didn’t even bother to thank him. Do we want to be like that one in ten who chose to be grateful to God and his Son, Jesus Christ, for healing them, or ungrateful like the other nine? Should we choose to feel frustrated and annoyed if only one in ten people we help, or less than 100% of them, choose to show us thanks and appreciation for our kindness and help?
Expecting others to be grateful and show appreciation when we help them will result in frustration a large percentage of the time, because many people have not yet learned to be very grateful, so I suggest we choose to be deeply grateful to God and to others for all they do for us; but that we do not expect thanks or appreciation from others – – or we will be quite disappointed most of the time. Choosing to do the right thing to serve and show kindness to others is the wisest choice, even though many times, the recipient of our kindness has not yet learned that showing gratitude is a wise and great choice.
Expressing sincere and heartfelt gratitude is very similar to expressing sincere and heartfelt love in the positive influence it has on our relationships, isn’t it?
Was it wise for Jesus not to get angry or offended because 9 of the 10 lepers chose not to show any thanks or gratitude for His healing? He still chose to continue “doing good” and healing countless of God’s children physically, emotionally, and spiritually—even though many of those He healed didn’t show Him much thanks, was He not? Wouldn’t it also be wise for us to choose not to get angry or resentful or stop performing acts of kindness toward others if some to whom we show kindness and acts of service don’t thank us back? Jesus felt far more inner peace and real joy every day, even on difficult days, than anyone else because He chose to serve and show acts of kindness, compassion, and love toward others every day, whether the recipients were grateful or not. Would it be wise for us to decide to follow His example and make daily efforts to do the same?
If you read the New Testament portion of the Bible carefully, you will find that it provides many details about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. You will feel that even though Jesus had a very hard and difficult life and ministry, filled with incredible challenges and persecution, no one who has ever lived has had as much inner peace, joy, and love for others as He did. Why is that? He was more deeply and closely connected and grateful to God (our Heavenly Father) in prayer, and more guided by God than any other person who has ever lived, and He lived a perfect, sinless life. When we choose to be deeply connected and grateful to God in prayer, what does He bless us with? I believe primarily in the Gifts of the Spirit of “love, joy, inner peace, goodness, faith, etc. And nothing can feel better and more joyful than those precious gifts of the Spirit—not even all the money, wealth, fame, worldly pleasures, super health and fitness, etc. in the world.
Clearly, inner peace and true joy don’t come from an “easy, stress-free earthly school” experience. Much of it comes from being deeply grateful for the countless blessings God gives us each day, even during the harsh tests of our patience and commitment, and from sharing with others the love, kindness, and inner peace with which God blesses us.
Isn’t the most important relationship for us to show deep gratitude every day, – – – that we choose to express our deep gratitude to God every day?
Have any of us experienced as many challenges, difficulties, and persecutions as Jesus? Clearly not, yet He was the most grateful person to our loving Heavenly Father who ever lived. If we choose to count our blessings each day and deeply thank God for them—instead of counting our stresses and problems each day—we can learn to be deeply grateful. What good are God’s countless blessings each day if we don’t even stop to count and thank Him?
What if a financial setback beyond your control caused you to lose all the wealth you’ve worked hard to accumulate over many years? Can you choose to continue counting God’s blessings and be thankful and therefore joyful? If 100 billionaires lost their precious and priceless eyesight, approximately what percentage of them would be willing to give up half their wealth to regain it? Most likely all of them, right? So isn’t that clear proof that the sight God has given us alone is worth at least $500 million?
And none of us middle-income earners will ever have or lose $500 million, right? And anyway, you can’t take those green slips of paper with you when we leave our earthly school, and they don’t bring true inner peace or true joy. So why not choose to learn to be deeply grateful to God every day for our countless blessings of sight, hearing, touch, friendships, gifts of God’s Spirit, and so on, even if we’re going through the extremely difficult and challenging trials of earthly school? So if you sometimes think or complain about not having enough money, and yet the one gift God has given you—sight—alone is worth at least $500 million, perhaps you’re not being grateful enough to God for the things that truly matter?
And what about the gift of hearing God has given you? Isn’t it worth almost as much as sight? – – – considering how wonderful it is to hear beautiful, uplifting music and the voices of your beloved family and friends. And the priceless spiritual gifts of the Spirit are worth even more than these priceless gifts of sight and hearing.
How happy a person will be if they are blessed by God with amazing sight, hearing, touch, and countless other daily blessings; and yet they complain and complain every day about their problems and stresses, and constantly compare and complain that other people they know have more money, beauty, fame, power, free time, etc., than they do. Even with countless daily blessings from God, those who get used to counting their problems and stresses, rather than the blessings God has given them, become quite sad and miserable, don’t they? And fortunately, will none of us ever go through such difficult trials in earthly school as Jesus did, or as Job or the Apostle Paul did, or countless others? I suggest you prayerfully read the New Testament and the Book of Job in the Old Testament if you think you have had severe trials in earthly school.
You might be thinking, “But Charles, I’m not very strong. I can’t endure a tough earthly school; can’t I just stay in earthly kindergarten my whole life?” Isn’t that like asking that you never be tested enough to help you draw closer to God in prayer, humble you, and help you learn compassion, love, and the joy of service to others? Wouldn’t it be wiser to choose to work on strengthening yourself each day with God’s help, so that you can handle whatever challenges come your way in your earthly school of hard knocks, and remain thankful every day for the blessings God has given you? Isn’t that all anyone needs to be truly happy, to be at peace, content, and to enjoy loving, trusting relationships during their time on earth and forevermore?
True Story to Ponder: One day, as a young college student, I observed my second cousin and friend, Randy Nelson, slowly savoring and deeply enjoying eating some raisins, one by one. It really caught my attention, and I asked him what was going on with the way he seemed to be savoring each little raisin one by one. He told me about a 30-day “survival class” experience he had recently participated in. I asked him many questions and knew I wanted to learn to more deeply appreciate all my little blessings from God—as deeply as I could see him appreciating them. So, I signed up for the same 30-day wilderness survival and relationship-building experience through our nearby Christian college, BYU (Brigham Young University). It was a life-changing and life-enhancing experience, surviving and learning to reflect, pray, and pursue a connection with God more deeply with 30 other like-minded college students. For our amazing group, it was much more an experience about learning to be more grateful and learning to connect with God in prayer, with lots of prayer and reflection time, and building more joyful and loving relationships, than it was about learning how to survive in the high-altitude wilderness. However, we also learned a lot about survival and learned to appreciate every morsel of food we could find or the little our instructors gave us. When we found foods in nature that were edible, we called them “amazing edibles.” We all lost 15 pounds or more that month, but if your main goal is weight loss, that’s not the experience you should sign up for.
Surprisingly, there were about 20 girls and only about 10 boys. One boy dropped out on about the second day because it was too difficult for him. None of these amazing, tough-minded girls dropped out, and they continued working through the challenges and trials with joy and gratitude. We each had a thin wool blanket, wrapped our few belongings in it, and strapped it to our backs. We slept on the ground wrapped in our single blanket. One night it snowed about 2 inches deep. Fortunately, the instructors helped us camp that night under a huge rock overhang. We had a girls’ camp for the night and a separate boys’ camp. We had a solo experience for about 3 days, where each of us was alone, and a few days where we were divided into small groups. One day we had a run of about 30 miles and a 12-mile run on the last day, when we were all feeling quite weak from lack of nutrition. I won both races but was completely exhausted, though grateful, when I reached the finish line. The 30s were very relationship-focused, and they were very close that month. We each brought a “survival journal” to record our thoughts, feelings, blessings, reflections, goals for our future, etc. I still have that special journal. At the end of those 30 days, we could all deeply and gratefully enjoy savoring one small raisin at a time and countless other daily blessings.
Questions to Reflect On: No matter how many countless blessings God lovingly bestows upon you, what joy will it bring you if you don’t choose to learn to be thankful to God every day?
True story: After my dear wife and I worked very hard to accumulate some assets and investments for our retirement, in 2012 someone thought they could get some of that by filing an unfair and dishonest lawsuit against us. We were stressed for a few months and very worried that we might lose the nursing home we had worked so hard to build and run, and everything we had worked for to accumulate some assets and security for retirement. For a few days we were counting our stresses, instead of counting our blessings. We decided to start singing the song together a few times each day, “Count Your Blessings,” with our Sing-along (Gospel For Kids) app on our cell phones and iPads and start counting our blessings, instead of our stresses. Below are some of the beautiful words from that song:
“When the storm hits you on the waves of life,
When you are discouraged, thinking that all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And you will be amazed at what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings; name them one by one.
Count your blessings; Look what God has done.”
Within a couple of days, we were again joyfully counting our blessings and decided that even if we lost all our money (green papers, real estate, etc.), we would still have incredible daily blessings from God in our lives, and that everything that was truly important would be eternally okay. Our fear of losing it all was replaced with thankfulness and joy for our most important blessings of God’s love, joy, and inner peace, which no one can take away from us as long as we make daily efforts to be close to God and are grateful to Him for our blessings. Fortunately, we didn’t lose that dishonest demand, so we were ready to retire a few years later so we could focus more time on what matters most: relationships.
Do you know one or more people to whom God has given countless blessings and opportunities, and yet they complain and whine at least daily, if not hourly?
Are you one of them? Would your life and relationships become more joyful if you decided to focus on showing more sincere gratitude to God, your family, and others?
How deeply grateful would millions of people around the world be that they have your same blessings, and yet you have them and complain about them at least once or more most days? After a couple from our church went to a poor country in the world—I think it was Africa—the husband shared that he never felt he had many worldly goods, but he had an interesting conversation with someone there. A man from that country told him that they couldn’t even imagine having as much as the typical American, who they considered very wealthy. The American tried to explain that he didn’t have much. The man asked him, “Do you have a car?” (Yes, he answered.) “Do you have a second car?” (Yes, he answered.) The man said, “We can’t imagine ever owning just one car.” “Do you own a house?” (Yes, he answered.)” The man said, “We can’t even imagine ever owning a house.”
Do you know one or more people who are poor in worldly things, such as wealth, good looks, power over others, fame, etc., but who are deeply grateful to God for the blessings and opportunities God gives them daily? Do you want to choose to be a complainer and a whiner? Or someone who is deeply grateful for God’s blessings every day? It’s a choice, isn’t it? Obviously, no one is forcing us to complain and whine, and there are millions with much less; don’t complain and whine every day.
Are you blessed with God’s amazing gift of sight? Or the amazing gift of hearing? Or touch? Are you blessed with some of the wonderful gifts from God’s Spirit—love, joy, inner peace, and faith? – – – and yet, you still choose to complain about your situation at least once a day or once a week?
Quote to ponder deeply: “Life is anything but fair—in the things that don’t matter at all eternally. Fortunately, in everything that truly matters eternally and brings true joy, God is completely just and even generous.” By Charles E. Hunt So, if you feel like life isn’t fair, pause to ask yourself if you’re stressed about things that don’t really matter eternally.
Important questions to reflect on:
How many blessings come into the lives of God’s grateful children? Does our loving Heavenly Father bring more real joy, inner peace, and loving relationships to those who choose to be deeply grateful to Him for His blessings? Why should our Heavenly Father continue to give you so many countless daily blessings if you don’t even appreciate the ones He gives you now? As a mother or father yourself, don’t you love it when one of your children is deeply grateful for the blessings, gifts, and services you provide—especially for your time, your love, your gentle and kind teachings, guidance, etc.? If you had a child who complained and whined a lot, even though you were providing them with countless blessings, kindness, and service, would you get a little weary? And perhaps you’d like to give them fewer blessings? Powerful quote: “It is difficult to count all the blessings we receive from God, but it sure will bring much joy to try.” Carlos Caza.
I kindly encourage you to begin a “Blessings Journal” as part of your 30-day experiment with the teachings of Jesus Christ, where you try to keep track of as many of the countless blessings you receive from our loving Heavenly Father as possible, and thank Him for those blessings in sincere prayer. Of course, everyone is blessed with “free will,” and no experiment would be of much use if someone forced you to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ for a month, would it? A blessings journal helps us to love and appreciate God and His influence in our lives even more deeply.
Is it even possible to be deeply grateful and deeply unhappy at the same time? – – I don’t think so. Being deeply grateful to God every day is a key part of developing a joyful and loving relationship with Him, and nothing brings more inner peace and joy than that. And isn’t showing deep appreciation to others also a key part of developing joyful and loving relationships with family members and others?
Consider that the most important and most difficult job in the world—being a good, wise, and just mother—is usually a rather thankless job. These wonderful, loving mothers don’t even receive cash payment for their work, like other working people in the world, so their only pay is the appreciation, love, and respect that, hopefully, their husbands and children show them each day, along with the priceless gifts of God’s Spirit of true love, joy, inner peace, etc., for their selfless service.
Powerful Quote: “People choose to stay away from God and His teachings; and then complain that God is distant.” For a truly joyful life, our relationship with God is the most important relationship of all. In fact, building a truly good relationship with God will ensure a joyful and thankful life. It is impossible to build a truly good relationship with God and not experience His gifts of the Spirit—of love, joy, inner peace, kindness—even when we are also going through some of the greatest trials of our earth—the school of hard knocks.
And if we choose to build a truly good relationship with God, then we will also be filled with His love for His other children, which will help us see them as He sees them and desire to serve them, lift them up, and be their friend, as He is always willing to do, if they allow Him. And, of course, the result of being a friend to many others is that you will be blessed with the joy of many true, good, and grateful friendships.
However, we must also be wise enough to seek out our closest friendships with like-minded people who also encourage us and are also trying to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ, not with selfish people who only want to use, abuse, and take advantage of us.
“But, Charles, how can I be deeply grateful to God when I don’t even know or understand Him?” My response: “Maybe it’s time you got to know God better, don’t you think?” A skeptic/agnostic/atheist might be thinking, “But, Charles, how can I even believe in a loving and just God, with all the injustice and evil in the world? A loving God wouldn’t allow such horrible things to happen, would He? Please read my article titled “Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen to Good People?” to understand.