The Life-Changing Power Of The Habit Of Gratitude

AI Generated Transcript (I only fixed glaring errors):

I just came out of a coffee shop with an old friend here in Northern Illinois. It's a beautiful, sunny, windy day. However, the trees and the plants are still not producing any beautiful flowers or leaves. That's still to come. But it's still a refreshingly beautiful day. Nice and warm out.

But as I was walking out the door, this coffee shop had this big sign about gratitude to God. And it made me think about something I was talking about with my old friend. We were talking about gratitude. And I was talking about how gratitude has changed my life. I think I've heard the practice of gratitude from a number of places over my life. I remember reading From Prison to Praise by Merlin Carruthers years ago. I reread it again a couple years ago. I should probably reread it again.

And I remember Rabbi Lapin, to give credit where credit is due, talking about starting your day. Is that Rabbi Daniel Lapin. If you're wondering who I'm talking about, he has a podcast. He talked about starting every day by writing down three to five things you're grateful for. And I have done that for years and never been very daily about it, but very regular about it. Frequently, you know, several times a week, writing in my gratitude journal. I call it my gratitude journal, even though I write some other things in there. And this has changed my life. It has brought me out of kind of a darker place for years now. This has been going on for years, not that recent anymore.

And I remember back when my mother died, she was a believer, and I was filled with gratitude for her life. Gratitude for what she brought into my life. And one of the things I wonder about is it seems like it's a little bit of a fad or whatever to do gratitude. And yet sometimes I hear people talking about it, and I always want to ask them, who are you grateful to? Gratitude to whom? You know, who is it that gave you these good things? For me, I'm grateful to the very real good God who created everything and gave us everything. I'm grateful that I exist. There was a time where I'm not sure I could have said that, honestly. But right now, I'm grateful that God has given me the opportunity to exist and to be.

He's given me an opportunity to be in this world that we're in together right now. And to work to be fruitful and multiply, to work to bring something good into the world for him. And bless my neighbors and love people. I'm grateful for all of this, like regularly. So that's what I wanted to reflect on in my voice notes webpage today, is gratitude. And if you're listening to this, I encourage you to deliberately speak out or write out regularly things you're grateful for until it trains your brain to see the things in the world. Sometimes even hard things, there's reasons to be grateful. I would encourage you to pursue this lifestyle of gratitude to God. He has given us a gift of being and of living. And what a great gift it is. May God fill you with gratitude today. John Davis, signing off.