The Power of Thanksgivingਨਮੂਨਾ

The choice is yours

Giving thanks is a choice, and so is complaining. Both complaining and giving thanks focus on an element and then share and declare it. Both are often attributed to circumstances, but both are a choice. If we make the same choice often enough, it will become a habit. What is a habit? It's something you have done enough times that you do it instinctively now. Whether it's brushing your teeth, walking, driving a car, or playing a sport, they were all learned. No matter how automatic they now seem, they were still learned, and that means they can be changed. It doesn’t mean it will be easy, learning new things is normally work. The Bible tells us to give thanks in all circumstances and to do everything without complaining.

What skills are you developing? Our brains are amazing, and they get good at things. They learn and get better at tasks. The more often we do a task, the more our mind and body prepare for it. If we ask our children what their Sunday school lesson was about the first time, they will probably answer, “I don’t know”. If we ask every week, they will start looking for something to answer the question they know is coming. It changes what they see and remember. Similarly, if we complain or give thanks regularly, our minds prepare to give us the information that we need. They will look for the relevant information, highlight it, and take note of it for quick recall. This results in two people who have the same experience walking away with different things highlighted for quick recall. Our mind can look for every negative or positive detail in our day. We will find what we are looking for.

Proverbs 11:27 NIV: He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.

In psychology, this is part of the confirmation bias. Our mind likes to be right and looks for things that affirm what it believes. When we train our minds to look for points of gratitude or complaints, we will find them. This strengthens a neurological pathway, increasing how quickly we see those things.

Our minds have limited parking spaces. Gratitude and complaining fight for the same space. When we choose to fill that spot, it pushes the other out. Gratitude pushes out complaining, depression, entitlement, and pride. But whatever we let park in our mind becomes a lens that we look through that affects everything we see. Rick Renner said it this way, “The longer you are ungrateful, the longer you will be unhappy.” Ungrateful parks with passengers like complaining, depression, entitlement, and more. Let's choose, on purpose, who parks in our mind, and what filters everything we see, hear, and experience.