Soul Care: 7 Days of Life-Giving PracticesSample

Day 7: Gratitude

The science on the benefits of practicing gratitude is overwhelming. It naturally decreases our stress chemical (cortisol) and helps us to balance our mood. Essentially, we are happier, healthier, less stressed, and further from burnout when we have a routine of gratitude in our lives. This is why many counselors and psychologists recommend the practice of gratitude journaling as part of your counseling process. It’s an invitation to direct your thinking and focus on the good when it’s much easier by default to focus on everything that’s not good in life.

Jesus Himself modeled regular rhythms of thanksgiving. He lived in a constant state of thankfulness, and He encouraged us to do the same. He practiced gratitude—both in anticipation of the good times and in the aftermath of the hard times. He looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God before feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:19), but He also looked up to heaven with a grateful heart after the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11:41-42). He thanked God for truth, and specifically for revealing His truth to those who were willing to receive it (Luke 10:21). And He often thanked God out loud to demonstrate gratitude for us. Because gratitude ushers us into the presence of God (Psalm 100:4). It opens the eyes of our hearts to see God and what He is doing more vividly, all while dimming our tendency to fixate on the negative things around us.

If you struggle to feel gratitude in your life, I encourage you to start with a simple gratitude journal. Get a blank notebook, or maybe the one you use for your Bible reading or quiet time. Dedicate one page, or five minutes at some part of your day, to writing out at least five things you are grateful for. Try and list five different things each day for the first seven days, ending the week with 35 unique things. Be as specific as possible. For example, instead of just writing “my family,” write something like, “I’m grateful for the time I was able to spend with my family yesterday at dinner and for the many laughs we have together.” There is so much to be grateful for, if we’ll only open our eyes to see it and then open our mouths to acknowledge it.

If thanksgiving is focusing our hearts and minds on what God has done, praise is focusing our hearts and minds on who God is. It’s our opportunity to celebrate His character, His attributes, His qualities, His goodness, His faithfulness, His holiness, His splendor. And thanksgiving and praise go hand in hand! Psalm 7:17 proclaims, “I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.” Not only that, but praise and thanksgiving often come with singing—as though you just can’t help but let it out when you’re filled with the gratitude of who He is and what He’s done! Even Jesus sang songs of worship! You’ll find it in Matthew 26:30: “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Something about imagining Jesus, singing songs to heaven, makes the act of worship all the more meaningful!

Gratitude is for your benefit. It’s for your peace of mind. I’d even go so far as to say that gratitude is a prerequisite to a healthy soul. So take some time today to celebrate life. Take some time for thanksgiving and praise.

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We hope this plan was helpful to you. You can read more from Debra Fileta in her book, Soul Care, available here.