Gratitude
What a day. I sometimes have days where I can just feel the tangible and real blessings of G-D flowing over me. Today has been one of those days. I don't have anything of tremendous interest to report today. No witty comments on biblical text or erudite commentary on some piece of prose. Today I'm just thanking G-D. Today, I'm simply grateful.
Gratitude is something of an elusive concept. We know what gratitude is when we feel it but we cannot always define it so easily. Many people treat gratitude as a simple emotion but I think it is so much more than that.
I feel grateful for many things, and today I am. Today I'm grateful for every breath that fills my lungs and every brush of crisp fall air. At it's most fundamental level gratitude is an emotional response to circumstances. In most cases gratitude is one way in which we can choose to respond to something that occurs, but I think this is only half of the story.
Gratitude can also be a reason for doing. It can be a causative agent in our lives. Gratitude can become a force that causes us to act rather than simply a reaction... If we are acting out of gratitude we will do things for our neighbor and for our world simply because we are grateful for each of them.
The biggest problem with grateful days is that I always wish I had more of them in my life. When I'm having a day of gratitude I can see G-D's fingerprints on the world. I want to have more days of gratitude because I want to see and rejoice over the hand of G-D in every situation.
If I am constantly responding to situations with gratitude I can only enjoy them as they occur but if I act upon my world and for the good of my neighbor from a sense of gratitude I create a self-perpetuating cycle of re-enforcement. If I act out of gratitude I will most likely create gratitude for others and if I create gratitude for others I will most likely feel grateful for the opportunity to be a blessing unto them. This creates an opportunity to act out of a sense of gratitude once again and the cycle is continued.
One of my goals is to continually be transformed into a person that responds personally to G-D and others out of gratitude and to also become a causal force for gratitude in the lives of others by taking action simply because I'm grateful.
I want to live this day in gratitude towards G-D and I want to take action out of gratitude towards G-D.
Gratitude is something of an elusive concept. We know what gratitude is when we feel it but we cannot always define it so easily. Many people treat gratitude as a simple emotion but I think it is so much more than that.
I feel grateful for many things, and today I am. Today I'm grateful for every breath that fills my lungs and every brush of crisp fall air. At it's most fundamental level gratitude is an emotional response to circumstances. In most cases gratitude is one way in which we can choose to respond to something that occurs, but I think this is only half of the story.
Gratitude can also be a reason for doing. It can be a causative agent in our lives. Gratitude can become a force that causes us to act rather than simply a reaction... If we are acting out of gratitude we will do things for our neighbor and for our world simply because we are grateful for each of them.
The biggest problem with grateful days is that I always wish I had more of them in my life. When I'm having a day of gratitude I can see G-D's fingerprints on the world. I want to have more days of gratitude because I want to see and rejoice over the hand of G-D in every situation.
If I am constantly responding to situations with gratitude I can only enjoy them as they occur but if I act upon my world and for the good of my neighbor from a sense of gratitude I create a self-perpetuating cycle of re-enforcement. If I act out of gratitude I will most likely create gratitude for others and if I create gratitude for others I will most likely feel grateful for the opportunity to be a blessing unto them. This creates an opportunity to act out of a sense of gratitude once again and the cycle is continued.
One of my goals is to continually be transformed into a person that responds personally to G-D and others out of gratitude and to also become a causal force for gratitude in the lives of others by taking action simply because I'm grateful.
I want to live this day in gratitude towards G-D and I want to take action out of gratitude towards G-D.
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