Nougat 6

What does gratitude look like? And how do we show it to God? Consider today’s Holy Nougat

“I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory!” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭118‬:‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Gratitude; an expression of thanksgiving manifested through happiness at the memories of the impact of a person or gift or as an intentional decision to reflect thanksgiving in all circumstances.

Psychologist Dr Robert Emmons, classifies gratitude in two stages: Affirmation and Recognition. Affirmation is that point of acknowledgement that good things are happening to us. Based on this, we affirm the positive aspects of life and choose to live with a focus on the positive. We make a conscious decision to acknowledge the gift and the effort expended on our behalf.

It’s hard to acknowledge a gift and the effort expended for a gift without being aware that the gift is from a source. In most instances, the source is outside of ourselves, and so our gratitude ought to manifest to the source of the gift – God, people, animals, nature, etc. In so doing, we recognize goodness outside of our own being and live in thanksgiving.

For me, there’s a third component, paying it forward. We gift others from our literal or extended resources because others have done the same for us.

Tiffany Sauber-Millaci puts it succinctly

Gratitude turns what little you have into abundance.

Gratitude is so much more than saying thank you.

Gratitude changes your perspective of your world. https://positivepsychology.com/team/tiffany-millacci/

When these three concepts are plugged in the nougat, we see answered prayer and victory as the gift (even the future victory); we recognize our Triune God as the constant Source of our gifts and we pay it forward by sharing God’s grace and love with others.

So how do we live today in gratitude? We begin with awareness of the many gifts (blessings), we have received from God and others; we pause in thanksgiving, like the psalmist, to the Source of our gifts; and we share our lives with others in the hope that they will also see God in the details.

Have a thankful Thursday!

—

May all we seek be found in Christ