Too Much Thankfulness - 674 Words

I’ve been hearing a lot about this thankfulness thing. I can’t get away from it. It started with Thanksgiving. Before digging in to a big Thanksgiving feast at my daughter’s house, we all took turns saying something for which we were thankful. My grandkids loved the idea so much, that they have continued the practice of naming something they are thankful for every night before dinner. They look forward to it. Then one day last week, while driving home during rush hour traffic I heard a story on the radio about a monk named David Steindl-Rast who believes that gratitude is the key to happiness. He was quoted as saying, â€Å"We all know people who have lots of misfortunes that we ourselves would not want to have, and they are deeply happy, they radiate happiness,† he says. Why are they like this? â€Å"Because they are grateful. It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.† I had just finished reading a book set in World War I, in which one of the characters was a soldier who served as an ambulance driver. His job was to drive into the middle of the battlefield, pick up wounded soldiers, and take them to the army field hospital. In the midst of all the horror, pain, and death of war, this man tasked himself with finding beauty in the otherwise bleak and dismal landscape of war. When he found something beautiful, he wrote it down in a notebook he carried. He had noted a flower struggling to poke through the trampled earth, a soldier’sShow MoreRelatedThe Christian Conduct : Thankfulness1549 Words   |  7 PagesConduct: Thankfulness If Christians are to obey, follow, and love God, thankfulness or gratitude, as it is so often called, must be a key part in how they worship and live their lives. Christians are told numerous times in the Bible to be thankful, but one verse in Thessalonians sums it up, telling Christians to â€Å"give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.† (Thessalonians.5.18) In the Bible, there are more than eighty references to thankfulness and gratitudeRead MoreThe God s Promised Land1064 Words   |  5 Pageshave never been Israel and Palestine area, by seeing the picture that had taken by many, I can tell that people do live by farming but it looks like just city in the desert. It does not look like milk and honey are flowing all over. Kansas would be much more fit on God’s description on promised land. In that case, some of you may wonder that, â€Å"Does God had lied to them?† To understand this correctly, we must understand what had happened to the Israelites. When the Middle East area was drought heavilyRead MoreRobinson Crusoe : An Admirable Character1337 Words   |  6 PagesRobinson Crusoe is an admirable character while others disagree. Robinson Crusoe is an admirable character for three reasons. He devotes himself to growing his spiritual life, he is resourceful and a diligent worker, and he cultivates a spirit of thankfulness and contentment. The first reason that Robinson Crusoe is an admirable character is because he devotes himself to growing his spiritual life. First, he asserts, â€Å"My duty to God, and the reading scriptures, which I constantly set apart some timeRead MoreCan You Imagine America Being Non Religious?920 Words   |  4 Pagespeople becoming less religious is because they are being drawn to show more gratitude and thankfulness, also not accepting the rules or beliefs that many religions have, and Jonathan Edwards found that most important benefit of worship was to obtain the knowledge of ourselves and God. Correspondingly people are being less drawn to be religious since, they are finding and giving more gratitude and thankfulness. Many of the people at least say that they go once a week to give thanks and show gratitudeRead MoreChinese Thought Patterns And Its Cultural Roots1402 Words   |  6 Pagescollege. I know all students must study English. English students Version: When I went to college, I knew/learned that all students are required to take an English course. There is no deny that the latter example written by the English students is much better in terms of sentence structure. As what we can see in the latter one, one of the syntactic features of English writing is that English native students will use some transitional words such as â€Å"when† and â€Å"that† to indicate logical relationshipRead MoreEssay on Personal Credo1623 Words   |  7 PagesI would want nothing more than the same thing to happen to them. There are also actions that I believe to always be wrong no matter what. One of the actions that I believe be wrong is stealing money from the company you work for. This happens so much in the world today, and the majority of the time when it happens the people who are stealing money are already rich. A person should not live beyond their means, and if they do decide to do so the company they work for should not help keep up theirRead MoreIs The Principal Over All Things And Is?1418 Words   |  6 Pages thanksgiving for blessings conferred; laudation to God; worship expressed in song, or the object, ground, reason, or subject of praise. Praise is a part of worshipping God. We should express our approval, thankfulness, and respect for God by offering praises to Him. This kind of thankfulness is a form of our worship that ascribes worth to God because of who he is what He does, what He has done, and what he will do. David had been given total victory and he wanted to express his gratitude to theRead MoreReview: Who Packs Your Parachute?1636 Words   |  7 Pagessleep that night as he thought about the man who possibly saved his life. He wondered if he had been nice to him when they were in the army.   He was a fighter pilot and he was just an ordinary sailor so in most likelihood, he would not have thought much of the lowly sailor back then. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor must have spent in the bowels of the ship, carefully entwining the shrouds and compacting the silks of each chute, holding in his hands the destiny of someone he didn’t knowRead MoreSignificance And Significance Of The Passage Of Colossians808 Words   |  4 Pagesof verse 9, he prayed for the knowledge of the Lord’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. It would be beneficial to keep the state of mind that there is always more knowledge to be obtain through prayer and study of the Bible. There is a much greater possibility of being influenced by false teaching when one lacks wisdom and understanding. Modern day Christians should always pray and seek to determine the Lord’s will and to have a greater spiritual understanding in their lives. In verseRead MoreThanksgiving Day By Melanie Wallendorf And Eric J. Arnould857 Words   |  4 Pages Thanksgiving is a time for families to come together and start the holiday season. People tend to make lots of food and the objective is to eat as much as you can. We will reflect on â€Å"Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day† by Melanie Wallendorf and Eric J. Arnould. We will also take a look at how Thanksgiving tends to contain family rituals. Thanksgiving is a special time of year where people get together to see family and to indulge in food and good times. Wallendorf and Arnould’s book talk