For years, I found myself frustrated, even sometimes angry, when unexpected expenses came in and messed with my neatly laid out plans. As a planner (and former banker), I wanted to pride myself on being financially responsible, but medical bills, rising costs of everyday necessities, and raising kids kept throwing the budget out of alignment.
And then, one day, I felt God gently nudge my heart, whispering, “You have enough.” Yes, my budget may get messed up, but I had enough to pay that unexpected expense; not everyone is so blessed.
Thanksgiving creates abundance, and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks – Take the just one loaf, say it is enough, and give thanks – and He miraculously makes it more than enough.
Ann Voskamp
My frustration over the unexpected interruptions came not only in areas related to finances. I struggled with last-minute changes to plans, with any and all interruptions to my well-laid-out plans or desire to complete tasks. That is until I began to travel on this journey of learning to live a life of gratitude.
Like with any change, a change in perspective, a shift in attitude does not happen overnight. It takes real intentionality and often starts small. For me, it began with simple practices of thanks. Instead of allowing myself to be thrown off balance by the unexpected, I began to practice gratitude. Each time I paid a bill, routine or unexpected, I whispered a prayer, “God, thank you for enough, for the ability to pay this bill.” With each interruption, I began to remind myself that people matter more than the plan, “focus on the people, not the plan.”
Did I do it perfectly every time? No. But, over time, I began to feel the change in my heart. As I learned to give thanks for what I had, my awareness of the needs of others grew.
Gratitude serves as a key link between receiving and giving: It moves recipients to share and increase the very good they have received.
Gratitude Researcher Robert Emmons
Research after research shows a clear link between gratitude and generosity and a connection I have experienced in my own life. As we learn to receive what we are given in life with thankfulness, we, in turn, are motivated to “Pay it Forward.”
Generosity is a function of the heart, not the wallet.
Wayne Dyer
It can be easy to think of generosity as a financial transaction. We give to charitable causes, to people in need, and that is all good. But generosity goes beyond the financial transaction of regular tithing or charitable giving. And money is only one venue for generosity. Living generously requires us to notice and respond with a more valuable currency, kindness.
In a 2020 article titled How to Put the Giving into Thanksgiving, it quotes study after study expressing how “helping others, performing acts of kindness, practicing generosity—can help spread gratitude in our society beyond just urging people to feel grateful on one day of the year. That’s because gratitude and generosity are part of a cycle.”
It would seem that a posture of gratitude leads to practicing generosity, which can help spread feelings of gratitude. Can you imagine the impact we can have simply by adopting an intentional posture of gratitude?
As we enter this holiday season, as we consider the gifts we want to give to our friends and family, may we also consider the gift of gratitude.
Perhaps, instead of being overwhelmed by what we don’t have, by the interruptions to our carefully laid out plans, we can find gratitude for what we can do have, and for the people, we have in our lives.
Remembering that people matter most, may we consider our resources of time and/or finances and how we might best spend them to foster a heart of Gratitude and Generosity?
