Recently I was feeling down and the Lord told me during my quiet time with Him to 'recount your blessings today.' I have never heard the Lord ask me to do such a thing before (and I know I write to a varied audience who perhaps might be skeptical of the fact that the Lord can speak to you, I write from a Christian perspective; my reference on hearing His voice would be from John 10:27). So honestly, I didn't feel like doing that that day, recounting my blessings that is. But because the Lord had whispered that to me, I decided to recount my blessings from the whole day. As I started listing them down one by one, I began to realise how blessed I really was and it shifted my gaze from being inward looking of all the possible problems and negative thoughts one could have in a day to one of looking at the glass half full. My countenance began to change too, I felt more at peace and truly blessed.
So I guess recently my writing has been influenced a lot by my faith and this would be one of those blog posts too. Quite possibly in a very wearisome atmosphere in the world today with the looming pandemic hanging over heads and the uncertainties of the future - not just personally speaking but in all its entirety, governments, working from home, health, will things ever return to normal and how long will that be etc one can get very caught up with the fact that everything seems to be against us. And that leads to what I would say, an unseen kind of depression that no one really speaks about.
Mary, are you being ridiculous when you titled this an 'Attitude of Gratitude'? You might be thinking as how is that even possible when things are so heavy around us. Well, the truth is that it is going to be heavy and that daily too till we know things will be certainly well. But in the midst of all that, we can change our somber countenance to one filled with gratitude for that which is certain in our lives. For one, we can be grateful that we have the gift of life and even though that is threatened daily nowadays, it is also up to us how we are going to look after our mental wellbeing daily. It is a daily battle. Negativity hits us everyday and at anytime in our lives but I am a firm believer that you can experience the joy of the Lord as your strength. In fact, now more than ever, despite the perpetual gloominess that looms around, I have found this to be very true - the joy of the Lord as my strength.
How? You may ask. Well first things first, not everyday is easy. But in the midst of those moments, I simply have learnt to bring them to the Lord in prayer. And I ask Him for a day that is filled with joy. Again, from a very downcast spirit I have seen the Lord turn my day around immediately within those moments of whispered prayer, fill me with His peace and joy returned. It is an act that requires us to make a decision and a discipline as my pastor would put it. And how does gratitude fit into all of this? Well, upon surrendering to Him that downcast spirit, naturally gratitude fills our hearts. Try it =)
P.s As in my first paragraph, sometimes making it an act of will to 'recount your blessings' in the day in the Lord will definitely turn that somber countenance around to one of peace =) My prayer for every reader is that during these difficult times, you will be filled with the peace of God that surpasses all knowledge and understanding (Philippians 4:6). God bless.
