A Dose of Gratitude

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The first statement is a reminder of the Maker and Giver of our life. The Lord, who prolongs our days is the same God who gives us a second chance. What we do with the second chance makes the difference when we begin to rejoice and be glad in it.

King David wrote this verse in the middle of Psalm 118. The first 23 ( verses) tell us about his times of distress, his encounter with fear, his period of isolation, his experience of helplessness and his vulnerable state in his weakness.

If all these trouble that King David has walked through are all too familiar for you, then you are in good company. This year alone has taken us through high tides of good news and low tides of despair. The ebb and flow of uncertainty has kept our expectations low and our hesitations high. This is us. I am sure glad that we all have the same point of reference.

What makes us all different is how we see what lies before us even if we are in the same vantage point. We may not get to choose our circumstance but we are capable of choosing the lens that we see it through.

When King David decided to give thanks through all of his circumstances, he saw a wide- open space to stand while in a hard- pressed breathing room. He saw himself winning when he declared “ I look in triumph over my enemies.” before a vast army charging against him and his men. He found a trustworthy friend in God while in the company of rulers and kings of the world. If you feel like it’s only you and God against the world, that’s exactly how King David felt. When the nations around him were up against him, they were like swarm of bees coming up to him, he took them down in the name of the one who is with him. Not that he won the battle against all of the nations. He shifted his own thoughts about his naysayers and critics. He had friends who didn’t believe him. There were people who thought he was up to no good. Yet, he found his confidence in the middle of criticism. God was always for him. He was on his side all along.

A daily dose of gratitude resets your attitude. Let’s wake up from a place of second chance. We are not deserving most of the time. God doesn’t owe us a thing but yet he gives us unlimited second chances daily. The psalmist likens our days as the grass in the field. We grow like a flower but when the wind blows over it, it is gone. Its place will remember it no more. (Psalm 113: 15-16).

What will you do if you knew you get to wake up another day and you have the permission to choose how you start it? You can reset your attitude in the middle of the uncertainty that you face each day. King David decided to rejoice and be glad in another day when he opened his eyes and stretched out his arms and yawned. He spoke under his breath and said “ thank you Lord, for another day.”

You get to be grateful for another day.