Gratitude
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Gratitude is the Attitude
It took a major shock to redeem this "... squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" as Charles Dickens described his unlikely hero in his story “A Christmas Carol”.
The reader is left in no doubt just how miserable and Christmas-hating Scrooge is – nothing it would seem could change that – until that is, he was confronted by the three Ghosts in his sleep: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. The three provided the jolt he needed and when he awoke on Christmas morning he was a very different person – and very grateful to have the opportunity to mend his ways to be generous and kind. "Many laughed to see this alteration in him, [wrote Dickens] but he let them laugh and little heeded them. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well ......"
If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. [Gerald Good]
Let gratitude be the attitude then this Christmas.
Research into Gratitude is interesting and points to some far reaching effects suggesting it is the forgotten factor in happiness. • While “Gratitude does not require religious faith” , those who regularly go to church, engage in prayer and read the bible, are more likely to be grateful. • Likewise, people with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be compassionate: more generous; more caring. And …. • Grateful people feel better, are less stressed, more content, have more energy and place less importance on material goods; • And note this parents: Children who have grateful thoughts have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008). “
I do hope Gratitude as one of those good old fashioned values, has not been smothered in the wrappings and tinsel? Nor by the perceived notion that money comes before thankfulness and generosity because playing Scrooge is a game unworthy of us: meanness detracts, it doesn’t add. • The RSA are learning that very point over the Poppy saga by denying people with special needs an opportunity to be more independent. • And the Silver Fern Farm’s Te Aroha freezing works must share the booby prize in docking the pay of workers who observed the 2 minutes silence for the Pike River’s memorial service on December 2.
Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices. ~Thomas Fuller
Gratefulness is or should be at the heart of Christmas, just as it is at the heart of faith in the same God who entered into the world in the Christ-child bringing the hope of peace and happiness.
[1] The reading from the prophet Isaiah tells us why we should be thankful to God:
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem. Isa. 52.9
The Messiah’s arrival is confirmed in John’s gospel – in the form of a child born in a stable to a young woman. What had been spoken of by the prophets is now visible as a person – the word became flesh – Jesus, [and as the gospel proclaims]: “ From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us” Jn 1v.14b And the focus tonight as it has been for two millennia, goes on the birth of the child of God for whom we can be eternally thankful so, as the carol sings.
“O Come let us adore him”.
• Thank God for the promise of hope & peace in the Holy Child. • Thank God even in spite of tragedy, because God understands and is alongside those who suffer. • Thank God for Constable Bruce Mellor who survived being badly beaten. • Thank God for Rosie aged who ran a roadside stall and raised $109 for the girl of the same age who had been badly abused • Thank God for freedom and this wonderful land G K Chesterton put it this way when he spoke of thankfulness: You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. Above all, this night, Thank God for the infant-Christ who is the greatest Christmas gift and may we, by giving our thanks, find a richer, deeper sense of happiness and purpose. May gratitude be our attitude this Christmas.
