Gratitude is a powerful motivator for change.
As with most weeks, I started with a desire to eat more healthy. No surprise there. With high hopes. I spent a bit of time in my Bible and ate a healthy breakfast, followed by a relaxed morning. The phone rings and a friend phones and says, “Hey, let’s hold each other accountable about eating healthy.” “Okay. Great idea,” I say, and then agree to call her back in the afternoon to discuss details. I eat a healthy lunch, and then I catch a glimpse of a package of cookies in the cupboard. In an instant, any shred of will power I might have had goes into hiding, and I eat one after another. In a matter of minutes they are gone. I head down to phone my friend, rather sheepishly, wondering whether I’ll tell her what I had just done. My friend doesn’t answer, so I leave a message and then I promptly reach into the cupboard for some chips to balance the sickly sweet taste in my mouth.
I remember talking to God in my head: ‘Why did I do it again, God? It didn’t even taste good and now I feel horrible. I know I should stop because this is not good for my body but I just don’t care. I know you desire me to have self control and live my life abundantly. I know I’m being rebellious but I don’t know how to stop.’ And then I put another chip into my mouth. Ugh.
I sit down to continue munching and do some work on my laptop and the phone rings.
Thinking it’s my friend calling, I grimace as I put down the chips and head to the phone. Instead of my friend, it’s a long awaited call about a matter that had been causing me more than a bit of grief. I'm informed that the matter has been resolved (a story for another time). Hanging up, I am so relieved and elated to the point where I’m on my knees crying, saying a prayer of gratitude that God had seen me through this difficult season of my life. As I returned to my work, I looked at the chips and I thought, “God, you are so good. What am I doing?” And with that sense of intense gratitude, I put the bag of chips away.
I wish I could say my decades long battle with food ended right there. I’m still trying to figure it out, but I think I learned afresh what a powerful motivator of change gratitude can be. While I was unwilling to change my behaviour while thinking of negative consequences, I was in an instant able to do what I knew was healthy and honouring to God because of an intense feeling of gratitude.
What would happen to my choices and rebellious heart if I were in a place of gratitude throughout each day?
What would happen to my choices and rebellious heart if I were in a place of gratitude
throughout each day?; if even in difficult circumstances, I were able to see the gifts of grace and love around me; and if I were able to see and believe that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17)? How would this mindful gratitude help my attitude and choices be pleasing to Him?
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