«Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits» (Psalm 103:2).
My friend Anne and I went for a bike ride one Sunday in the Whippendell Woods in England. It was a glorious spring day! The sun was shining, and the forest floor was painted blue, covered by a blanket of hundreds of thousands of purple hyacinths. Anne and I stopped by the creek to absorb the beauty of the place before beginning the journey back. At one point, we had to turn left to enter a main street. Anne stopped, looked both ways, and then began to laugh. «What’s going on?» I asked. «I’m so used to driving that I tried to turn on the turn signal to turn left,» she said. After driving her car for years, Anne had developed muscle memory; turning on the turn signal is nothing more than an automatic reflection.
Imagine cultivating gratitude in such a way in your life that it becomes an automatic reflection; a reaction as spontaneous as saying «Bless you!» when someone sneezes. The best fertilizer for gratitude is humility. Unfortunately, the consumerist culture in which we are immersed teaches us to think that we deserve everything we want. Over time, we begin to believe that having health, success, or children is not a privilege, but our right. When we don’t get what we want or there are problems, we resent each other. With humility, however, we can understand that all blessings are undeserved gifts and remain grateful.
Gratitude and humility give a new meaning to our lives. «The deepest meaning of any moment lies in the fact that that moment is a gift,» wrote David Steindl-Rast in Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer. «Gratitude knows, understands, and celebrates that meaning,» he added. I invite you today to recognize and celebrate with humility and gratitude all the blessings of this day that God gives you.
Dear Lord, I want gratitude to become a daily habit, a natural reflection in my life. I know that in order to develop this ability, I need humility and practice. So I ask You to free me from selfishness. Renew me, flood my heart with gratitude. Open my eyes to see everything You have given me and open my lips to praise You.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Perez & Angelica Cuate
