Thankfulness = Happiness and real Joy
True Quote to ponder on:
“No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse.” Jeffrey R. Holland
“There can be no joy without gratitude.” Richard Paul Evans
“Thankfulness = Happiness – – – and contentment, inner peace, & more joyful and loving relationships.” Charles Hunt
Important Questions to Ponder on: How much affect for good and for joy and inner peace, would it have on all of your relationships, – – – if you choose to be deeply thankful in all of your important relationships in your life, and to verbalize it daily to God, family members, and others? Isn’t it true that showing deep and real thanks and appreciation in your relationship with God, family members and others; is a lot like expressing love, and would bring a lot more joy, love, and inner peace to each of those relationships?
True Story to Ponder on: One day Jesus Christ, healed 10 lepers, of the most dreaded, feared, and miserable disease of that day. And afterward, only one of them came back to thank Him, and nine did not even bother to thank him. Do we want to be like the one in ten who chose to be thankful to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ, for healing them, or unthankful like the other nine? Should we choose to be frustrated and upset if only one in ten people that we help, or at least not 100% of them; choose to show thanks and appreciation to us for our kindness and help?
Expecting others to be thankful and to show appreciation to us when we help them, will result in frustration a large percentage of the time, because many people have not yet learned to be very thankful, so I suggest that we choose to be deeply thankful to God and to others for everything they do for us; but that we don’t expect thanks or appreciation from others – – or we will be pretty disappointed too much of the time. Choosing to do the right thing to serve and show kindness to others is the wisest choice, even if many times, the recipient of our kindness, has not yet learned that showing thanks is a wise and great choice.
Would it be a wise choice for you and me, to choose to be one of those, who express sincere thanks daily for our countless blessings and things we appreciate from God and from others in our lives who do good and kind things for us each day, such as a mother, father, sibling, friend, etc.? Expressing sincere heart-felt thanks, is much like expressing sincere heart-felt love in the positive influence that it has on our relationships, isn’t it?
Was it wise of Jesus to not get angry and take offense, because 9 of the 10 lepers, chose to not show any thanks or gratitude for Him healing them? He still chose to keep going about “doing good” and healing countless children of God physically, emotionally, and spiritually, – – – even though some that he healed did not show much thanks to Him, didn’t He? Would it be wise or foolish for us to choose to get angry or resentful or quit doing acts of kindness toward others; if some that we show kindnesses and acts of service for, do not thank us? Jesus felt far more inner peace and real joy every day, even on the hard 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 thankful or not. Would it be wise for us, to choose to follow his example, and make daily efforts to do the same?
If you read the New Testament part of the Bible carefully, you will find that it gives a lot of detaila about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. You will sense that even though Jesus had a very hard and difficult life and ministry full of incredible challenges and persecution; no one who has ever lived has had as much inner peace, joy, and love for others as Him.
Why is that? He was more deeply and closely connected and thankful to God (our Father in Heaven) in prayer, and more led by God than anyone who has ever lived, and He lived a perfect life without sin. When we choose to be deeply connected and thankful to God in prayer, what does He bless us with? – – – I believe primarily with 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 real joy, does not come from an “easy and stress-free earth-school” experience. A lot of it comes from being deeply thankful for our countless God-given blessings each day – – – even during hard tests of our patience and commitment, and from sharing with others the love, kindness, and inner peace that God blesses us with.
Isn’t the most important relationship for us to show deep thankfulness each day, – – – that we choose to express our deep thankfulness to God each day? Have any of us gone through as many challenges and difficulties and persecutions as Jesus? Clearly not, – – – yet He was the most thankful person toward our loving Father in Heaven that has ever lived. If we choose to count our blessings each day, and thank God deeply for them; instead of counting our stresses and problems each day; we can learn to be deeply thankful. What good are countless blessings from God each day, if we don’t even pause to count them and be thankful?
What if a financial reversal out of your control, caused you to lose all of your wealth that you have worked hard over many years to build up; can you choose to still count your blessings from God, and be thankful, and therefore joyful? If 100 billionaires lost their precious and priceless eyesight, about what percentage of them would be willing to give up half of their wealth to get their eyesight back? Most likely, all of them, right? So, isn’t that clear proof that your God-given eyesight alone, is worth at least 500 million dollars?
And none of us average income people will ever have or lose 500 million dollars, right? And you can’t take those green papers with you when we leave our earth-school anyway, and they don’t bring true inner peace and real joy, so why not choose to learn to be deeply thankful to God each day, for our countless blessings of eyesight, hearing, touch, friendships, gifts of the Spirit from God, etc., even if we are going through extremely difficult and challenging earth-school tests? So, if you think or express complaints at times about not having enough money, and yet your one God-given gift of your eyesight alone, is worth at least $500 million dollars; are you maybe not being thankful enough to God for the things that really matter most?
And what about your God-given gift of hearing, isn’t that worth almost as much as eyesight? – – – considering how wonderful it is to hear beautiful and uplifting music, and the voices of your dear family members and friends. And the priceless spiritual gifts of the Spirit, are worth even more than these priceless gifts of eyesight and hearing.
How happy will a person be, if they are blessed by God with amazing eyesight, hearing, touch, and other countless daily blessings; and yet they whine and complain every day about their problems and stresses, and they constantly compare and whine about how some others they know have more money, or beauty, or fame, or power, or free time, etc. than they do? Even with countless daily blessings from God, those who get in the habit of counting their problems and stresses, instead of their God-given blessings; become pretty sad and miserable, don’t they? And fortunately, none of us will ever go through as difficult of earth-school tests as Jesus did, or as Job or the apostle Paul, or many others have? I suggest that you prayerfully read the New Testament and the book of Job in the Old Testament if you think you have had hard earth-school tests.
You may be thinking, “but Charles, I am not very strong, I can’t handle a hard earth-school; can’t I just stay in earth-school kindergarten all of my life?” Isn’t that like asking that you never be tested enough to help bring you closer to God in prayer, and to humble you, and to help you to learn compassion, love, and the joy of service toward others?” Wouldn’t it be wiser to choose to work at getting stronger each day with God’s help, so that you can handle any challenges that come your way in your earth-school of hard knocks, and still remain thankful every day for your God-given blessings? Isn’t that everything that anyone needs to be truly happy, and at-peace, content, and to enjoy loving and trusting relationships during their time on earth and forever after?
True Story to Ponder on: One day when I was 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 – – – in the manner that he seemed to be savoring each little raisin one by one. He told me about a 30 day “Survival class” experience that he had recently been on. I asked him a lot of questions, and I knew that I wanted to learn to more deeply appreciate all of my little blessings from God, as deeply as I could see that he was appreciating them. So, I signed up for the same 30 day wilderness survival/relationship-building experience through our local Christian College, BYU (Brigham Young University). It was a life-changing and life-enhancing experience for me, to be out surviving and learning to ponder, pray, and seek a connection with God more deeply with about 30 other like-minded college students. For our amazing group, it was far more an experience about learning to be more thankful and learning to prayerfully connect with God, with much prayer and pondering time, and building more joyful and loving relationships, than about learning to survive in the high mountain desert area. However, we did also learn a lot about survival, and we learned to cherish every morsel of food that we could find or the little we were given by our leaders. When we found food in nature that was edible, we called it “incredible edibles”. We all lost 15 pounds or more of weight that month, but if your primary goal is to lose weight, that is not the experience to sign up for.
Surprisingly, there were about 20 girls and only about 10 boys. One boy dropped out about the 2nd day, because it was too hard for him. Not one of those amazing tough minded girls dropped out, and they kept working through the challenges and tests cheerfully and thankfully. We had one thin wool blanket each, and we wrapped up our few things in it, and strapped it to our back. We slept on the ground with our one blanket wrapped around us. One night it snowed about 2 inches deep. Fortunately, the leaders helped us to be under a huge rock overhang that night. We had a girls camp at night and a separate boys camp. We had a solo experience for about 3 days, where we were each out on our own, and a few days, where we split up in small groups. We had about a 30 mile race one day, and about a 12 mile race the last day, when we were all feeling quite weak from lack of nutrition. I happened to win both races, but I was completely exhausted, yet thankful by time I reached the finish line. The 30 of us were very relationship-centered and close that month. We each brought a “survival journal” to record our thoughts, feelings, blessings, ponderings, goals for our future, etc. I still have that special journal. By the end of that 30 days, we could all enjoy deeply and thankfully savoring on one little raisin at a time and other countless daily blessings.
Questions to Ponder on: No matter how many countless blessings God lovingly bestows upon you, what joy will it bring you, if you do not choose to learn to be thankful to God each day? Some children of God, are blessed with countless blessings each day, yet are unthankful and therefore unhappy and miserable inside, because they have not yet chosen to focus on learning to deeply appreciate and thank God for their blessings from Him.
True Story: After my dear wife and I worked very hard to build up some assets and investments for our retirement; in 2012, someone thought they could get some of that by doing an unfair and dishonest lawsuit against us. We were stressed for a few months, concerned about the fact that we might lose the elderly care home that we had worked so hard to build and to run, and everything we had worked for to build up some retirement assets and security. 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 app on our cell phone, and to start counting our blessings, instead of our stresses. You will read more about that wonderful joy-producing app on another place on this website. Below are some of the beautiful words of that song:
“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.”
Within a couple of days, we were joyfully counting our blessings again, and we decided that even if we lost all of our money (green papers, and real estate, etc.), we would still have amazing daily blessings from God in our lives, and that all that was truly important eternally would be just fine. Our fear of losing everything, was replaced with thankfulness and joy in our most important blessings of love, joy, and inner peace, from God, that no one can take away as long as we make daily efforts to be close to God, and to be thankful to Him for our blessings. Fortunately, we did not lose that dishonest lawsuit, and so we were ready to retire a few years later, so that we could focus more time on what matters most – – relationships.
Do you know one or more people who have countless blessings and opportunities given to them by God, and yet who complain and whine at least daily if not hourly?
Are you one of them? Would your life and relationships become more joyful if you choose to focus on showing more sincere thanks to God and to family members and others?
How deeply thankful would millions of people in the world be who have your same blessings, and yet you have them, and you complain at least one or more times on most days? After a couple in our Church went to a poor country in the world, – – – I believe it was in Africa; the husband shared how he never felt that he had much in worldly assets, but how he had an interesting discussion with someone there. A man in that country told him they could not even imagine having as much as the typical American has, that they considered was wealthy. The American tried to explain that he did not have a lot. The man asked him, do you own a car? (yes, he responded). Do you own a 2nd car? (yes, he responded). The man said, we can’t imagine ever owning one car. Do you own a home? (Yes, he responded). The man said, we can’t even imagine ever owning a home.
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 thankful to God for their God-given blessings and opportunities daily? Do you want to choose to be a whiner and complainer; or one who is deeply thankful for his blessings from God each day? It is a choice, isn’t it? Obviously, no one is forcing any of us to whine and complain, and millions with far less; don’t whine and complain every day.
Are you blessed with the amazing gift of eyesight from God? Or the amazing gift of hearing? Or of touch? Are you blessed with some of the amazing gifts of the Spirit from God Himself of Love, Joy, inner peace, faith? – – – and yet, do you still choose to complain about your situation at least once per day or per week?
Quote to deeply ponder on: “Life isn’t fair at all, in the things that matter not at all eternally. Fortunately, in everything that really matters eternally and that brings real joy; God is completely fair, and even generous.” By Charles Hunt So, if you are feeling that life isn’t fair, pause to ask yourself if you are stressing about things that don’t truly matter eternally.
Important questions to ponder on:
How many blessings come into the lives of thankful children of God? Does our loving Father in Heaven give more real joy, inner peace, and loving relationships to those who choose to be deeply thankful to Him for their blessings? Why should our Father in Heaven, keep giving 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 thankful for the blessings and gifts and service that you give to them – – – especially of 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 giving them countless blessings and kindness and service; would you get a little tired of it? And would you maybe feel like not giving them quite as many blessings?
Power Quote: “It is hard to count all of our blessings from God, but it sure brings a lot of joy to try.” Charles Hunt.
I kindly encourage you to start a “Blessings Journal” as a part of your 30 day experiment on the teachings of Jesus Christ, where you try to keep a record of as many of the countless blessings as you can, that you receive from our loving Father in Heaven, and thank Him for those blessings in sincere prayer. Of course, everyone is blessed with “free agency”, and no experiment would do much good, if someone forced you to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ for one month, right?. A blessings journal helps us to even more deeply love and appreciate God, and His influence in our lives.
Is it even possible to be both deeply thankful and deeply unhappy at the same time? – – I don’t believe so. Being deeply thankful to God each 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 a joyful and loving relationship with family members and others?
Consider that the most important and hardest job in the world – – – of being a good, wise, and righteous mother; is often a pretty thankless job. Those wonderful and loving mothers, don’t even get paid in cash for their work, like others who work out in the world, so their only pay is the appreciation, love, and respect that their husband and children show them each day – – – along with the priceless gifts of the Spirit from God of real love, joy, inner-peace, etc. for their unselfish service.
Power 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 assure 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, goodness, – – – even when we may also be going through some of the biggest tests in our earth-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 to see them as He sees them, and to desire to serve and lift them and be their friend, as He is always ready to do – – – if they will allow it. And of course the result of being a friend to many others, is that you will be blessed with the joy of many good and thankful true friendships.
However, we also need to be wise enough to seek our closest friendships with like-minded people, who will also lift us up, and who are also trying to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ, not with selfish people who just want to use and abuse and take advantage of us.
“But, Charles, how can I be deeply thankful to God, when I don’t even know Him or understand Him?” My response: “Maybe it is about time for you to get well acquainted with God, don’t you think?” A skeptic/agnostic/ or atheist may be thinking: “But, Charles, how can I even believe in a loving and fair God, with all of the unfairness and evil in the world. A loving God, would not allow such horrible things to happen, would he? A super crucial key to understanding the answer to that very big and important question is understanding why we need the God-given gift of Free Agency during our earth-school and testing period.
I encourage you to read and ponder on the link on my website called “How important is our God-given gift of free agency and also the link on “God’s Plan of Happiness/Salvation vs. the One Heaven & One Hell Plan for the forever future of all of His children. We would have no joy, if our earth-school and testing period, was one of being forced to do everything according to God’s teachings/commandments, right? Those teachings would not actually bring real joy and inner-peace or progress for any of us, if they were forced on us or on those who choose to be bullies during their earth-school and testing period, right? And it would not be a “real test” either, would it if we had no real freedom to choose both good and evil, right and wrong, etc?