The Language of Gratefulness

Of all the issues that the modern church in America is facing, I tend to think one of the biggest is the lack of personal and collective gratefulness. It seems that everyone loves to complain and the church is no exception. We complain about our jobs, house, taxes, spouses, friends, church programs, calendars, struggles, finances and we even tend to complain about other people who complain a little too much.

With so much conversation fixed on complaining, have you ever wondered what a week would sound like if you never heard one complaint? Since it is impossible to control the speech of others, this gives us an easy out. But maybe we need to ask the question a little differently. What would a week sound like if I never complained? How radically different would your conversations be?

One quick note before we get too far down this road. Not complaining and being grateful aren't the same things. Not complaining is a good start, but it isn't the ultimate goal (glorifying God is).

Here are three starting points for a grateful heart and ultimately a grateful life:

1. Intentionally choose gratefulness
• Gratefulness isn't our default setting. We are prone to be proud, believing that we deserve better and more. This is are default setting. So if we are going to live a life of gratefulness it will have be done intentionally. When Paul wrote "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" he wasn't saying to be thankful for the good times. His life was full of disappointments, hardships and struggles. He was saying choose to be thankful no matter then circumstance you face.
2. Intentionally communicate gratefulness
• If we make a choice to be grateful, but we don't express that gratefulness we are missing a major aspect of it. Christians should be the examples of grateful speech. When I talk about grateful speech it needs to exceed the simple sayings of  "please" and "thank you." We need to be able to verbally be grateful for other people's service, for areas of growth, for difficult times that God uses to refine us, for circumstances that don't work as we expected them to. When was the last time you told someone how grateful you were for their ministry? or for a trial God was leading you through? Make a commitment to speak words of gratefulness.
3. Intentionally limit ungratefulness
• Remember the saying "a bad apple spoils the whole bunch"? We can make an intentional choice to be grateful and to speak that gratefulness to others, but if we are surrounded by others who are constantly ungrateful the effect will be minimal. I am not suggesting that you only have friends that do not complain, that would be an impossibility. I am saying that if we constantly listen to complaining, our heart will join the conversation. Lead the conversation to truth and gratefulness, and if you can't do that, join a conversation you can. 

May our lips be full of gratefulness because our heart is full. May the Gospel so change our heart that we no longer live in pride, but may we be Christians who are defined by gratefulness.