I love the time right around Thanksgiving when many of us are thinking about what we have in this life to be grateful for. It’s good to live a life filled with thanksgiving.
G.K. Chesterton said, “Gratitude is the mother of all virtues.”
I believe he is right. It is hard to possess any virtues if they don’t flow from a grateful heart. I see people everyday who have struggles far worse than I have ever known. I think about them often. I was born with good parents. I have good health. I have a good mind. I have a wife who is also my best friend. I have healthy successful grown children. My grandkids are all kind and well adjusted. I live in a beautiful home. I belong to a church I dearly love. I have friends who love me. I live in a great country where I am given freedoms not found in all countries around the world. You get the point. I could go on and on about the ways I have been blessed in this life.
Again, I quote the great Englishman Chesterton, who said this as he was coming to the end of a day.
“Here ends another day, during which I have had eyes, ears, hands and the great world around me. Tomorrow begins another day. Why am I allowed two?”
I understand his sentiment. Why are we allowed two? Life is a beautiful gift. It is not all good but there is enough good to cause us to go to bed each night with a sense of gratitude flowing in our hearts. Big life people, be known for your grateful hearts. It is the thing that matters most on the journey.