Habit Of HappinessSample

The More Grateful You Are, the Happier You Are

Study after study has linked gratitude to happiness; psychologists and sociologists have proven that the more grateful you are, the happier you are.

If you want to have healthy relationships, you have to start with an attitude of gratitude. You will be far happier and enjoy your relationships more if you will develop the habit of being grateful for the people in your life.

Philippians 1:3 says, “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God” (NLT).

That simple truth is the source of good relationships. When people stop doing this in a marriage, they crumble. When you stop remembering why you got married in the first place and the good times in your relationship and you stop being grateful for your mate, your marriage is on a long slide into oblivion.

When you think of the people in your life, is your first feeling gratitude? Probably not. More often it’s, “What do they need to do for me? What are our problems? What have we got to get done?” Your first thought is not gratitude. But Paul’s first thought for his friends was one of gratitude, and it is the model we should follow if we want our relationships to last.

Here’s the problem: The longer you know someone, the more likely you are to take that person for granted. Isn’t that true? The longer you know someone, the easier it is to focus on that person’s faults and the bad times instead of the happy times.

That’s why it takes effort on our part to make the decision to have an attitude of gratitude for the people in our lives. The longer our relationships, the harder it may be to remember. But, when we develop the habit of giving thanks to God when we think of our spouses, children, parents, siblings, neighbors, coworkers, and small group members, it’s going to have an eternal impact on our relationships.


This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.