Choosing Thankfulness

(Side note: I wrote this exactly one year ago, and just found it again and I really needed it! So I thought I would share it with you. So keep in mind the context for this is one year ago.)

For those of you who don't know, I love making Satan really angry with me...its one of the most accomplished feelings there is, when you know that he's really annoyed, and God's really happy, you've just won.

However, sometimes it's easy to fall under frustration, stress, annoyance, and overall displeasure with the things around you. None of those feelings are from God, which means that the 'W' does not go to Him...or you when you choose to give into your emotions.

I recently felt a lot of those things, I was just wondering what my purpose was, how I was making a difference, and who's life I impacted in my daily living. Sometimes it's easy to feel displeased, and like you should be doing more.

A few weeks back I purchased a plane ticket out to Indiana to visit my older sister, and I was shocked as to how much the ticket itself cost. I am a high school student, I do have a job, and I technically could afford it. However it took a chunk out of my bank account, and I felt a little insecure about it...I'm going to college in a year, and I could defiantly use that 300 plus dollars spent.

At that time I was really wishing I had more money. I would go into work feeling frustrated, my attitude was downcast, even though I try to always be pleasant and kind to the people around me, there was a certain internal joy lacking in my life.

It not only affected me, the people I worked with, but as a waitress it for some reason seemed to even affect my tips. I knew something was wrong in me, and one day I was driving home from work, after a very long day, and I decided to talk to God about it.

And He called me out. He gently revealed to me that in general I was not being thankful about thing things around me. He told me that when I was tipped in my heart I was only thankful for the really good tips, and seemed to be very displeased by the bad tips, and did not give thanks for them...not even a little bit.

He told me that the opposite of displeasure is thankfulness, and if I switch my mindset of 'its never enough' to 'I'm thankful for everything I have' I would see the opposite affect in my life.

So I went back to work, and as I worked I chose to be thankful, thankful for my job, kind coworkers, being able to spread God's joy to the tables I waited on, and even thankful for every single tip I received, good, bad, or even no tip at all. I was equally thankful every time.

And the day I chose obnoxious thankfulness, my tips doubled, and I left feeling content and happy inside as well as on the outside. I chose to be thankful every shift I went into, and within four shifts, my plane ticket was paid off.

Not only did thankfulness manifest itself in a financial way, but also it showed itself in my actions. I always looked happy on the outside, but with the choice of thankfulness my joy increased on the inside, and it was no longer fake.

As I was being thankful in everything I did, someone who was eating at the restaurant, he wasn't even my table, came up to me, and told me that I had so much joy, and that my happiness lit up the whole room.

So by choosing thankfulness in my life, my money doubled, my amount of joy tripled and noticeably so, and I even found that my relationships strengthened. The bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus." God designed us to be thankful, and even when your circumstances are far from perfect, God made us to have a thankful mindset.

Thankfulness is the best form of being optimistic. Sometimes you can't frame your circumstances as being ideal, and sometimes things aren't perfect, but I believe that there is ALWAYS something in every circumstance to be thankful for.

And in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 I really think that God wouldn't ask us to be thankful in all circumstances if it wasn't possible.

God knows what you're going through, he knows your financial issues, he knows your personal problems, but I think that the best way to focus on the positive is to focus on being thankful.

Negativity really can't beat thankfulness, thankfulness isn't faking a feeling, it's seeing what you have, so much so that the feelings you had to fake before, are actually real.

It's a mindset that no matter what, you're going to choose thankfulness as your lifestyle, and it doesn't have to mean that everything around you is perfect, but it means that you see the mess of life, but don't let it take what you have.

Life isn't perfect, and sometimes "people don't tip you" but choosing to be thankful for what you've been given, allows you to be thankful that you at least got to spread God's joy to the "non tippers", and got to do the same to the good ones.

Being thankful kicks Satans butt, he want you to believe that there is nothing to be thankful for, but don't parter with that. Thankfulness has the ability to change every circumstance, change your life, and the lives around you.

Thankfulness is the purest form of joy.

So I encourage you to find even the littlest things to be thankful for, and watch your finances increase, your relationships strengthen, and your joy become as real as the air you breath. It's not hard to do, and it has changed my life.

Thank you so much for reading, I would love to hear any comments/questions you may have, so feel free to contact me and make sure you subscribe to my blog for more content.