Cultivating Gratitude by Rev. Lane Williams
Sometimes it’s easy to be filled with an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. It swells up inside us as we see the beauty of the trees turning color, sense the serenity in the woods as we walk, and when we are delighted by children exploring the world with such intense curiosity. We are humbled by all these events. God’s grace is all around us. It is easy to see that truly God is bestowing more peace and well-being into our lives than we could imagine. We are reaping more of Spirit’s harvest of plenty than the seeds of hope we have sown. This is the Grace of God. We are thankful!
Today’s challenge in the midst of dire economic predictions is to cultivate gratitude even when we are programmed not to, as we operate in the world using the "normal" and expected human thought patterns. When the outer world is not revealing anything that we can give thanks for in the present moment, the accepted pattern is to worry, complain, to withhold ourselves, waiting until the world gets better before we move forward. Our usual way of expressing gratitude is to see something deemed wonderful in our midst and from that place say, Thank you.
I am suggesting that our opportunity now is to lift our consciousness to the level of Spirit and decree from that elevated plane that God is good all the time. This is the chance to affirm that God’s good is flowing in and through my life, no matter what evidence of lack there may be. Eric Butterworth says that "thanksgiving is not just a reactionary emotion; it is a causative energy. It is an effective key by which anyone may meet life as a powerful conqueror." So I am suggesting that we have the opportunity to be spiritual conquerors of our thinking and therefore our lives. As spiritual masters we decree that lack is an illusion. We decree that what we are envisioning is present now and active in our life, and we give thanks in advance for the beauty, the wonder, and the magnificence of God’s abundance.
When I use the word cultivate I do so because just as the gardener prepares the soil, plants the seeds and tends the garden through the growing season, we are to prepare our minds by releasing our fearful, anxious, negative thoughts. We are to plant the seeds of peace, prosperity, perfect health, and well-being in our consciousness. We are to weed out all negative error thinking as it arises, to remain vigilant to our anxious monkey mind chatter and root it out before it takes hold. And just as the wise gardener uses companion plants that support the growth and vitality of his crops, we promote our well-being by being with positive people, associating with friends who focus on thoughts of love and harmony – those positive, uplifting expansive thoughts that support the development of our higher consciousness.
Joan Borysenko says that "gratitude is like a gearshift that can move your mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from rigidity to creativity, from fear to love." Cultivating gratitude is consciously directing your thinking and resisting the call to join the naysayers. Practicing gratitude describes the mindfulness exercise I have used for years. When I notice the swirl of stress, tension, fear, and anxiety building within me, I pause and look around me. I take a breath and BE thankful for what I see. I am immediately rescued from the regrets of the past or the worries about the future to experience the calm, peace of the present moment. I live, I move, I have my being in God’s grace. I am thankful. I am grateful for the abundance of good in all forms flowing though my life. And so it is.
