FRAME IT, IN GRATITUDE

WISDOM NUGGET: "Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture"
                                                                                                 - Kak Sri


Traditional Thanksgiving, Autumn Holiday Background from Photo Pin

 

The act of gratitude is the act of focusing on the good in life. If we perceive our current life to have more good, we will also believe our future life to have more good. Optimism is correlated with gratitude because those with an optimistic disposition are biologically more likely to focus on the good (gratitude) than on the bad (personal disappointment, anxiety, etc.)

There is story about a woman who had terrible issues in her marriage. Her husband had started having extramarital affairs. The more she complained, the worse it got. It got so bad that he started bringing the women home to his matrimonial bed. Each time, this woman would cry relocating to another room while it lasted. At a point, her husband included physical abuse. She had gone from place to place to seek help, all to no avail.

Then at the counselling table with a fellow believer, the lady counsellor asked her to make a list of the wonderful things about her husband she could ever remember. She declined, initially, but gave in afterwards. Then the counsellor asked her the last time she appreciated her husband for any of the things she'd listed, but she couldn't remember. Then she was asked to go home, prepare her husband a special meal and recite those things to him in an attitude of gratitude. To make matters worse, on getting home, the man was at it again; he was with a different woman. Unrelenting, she went straight to the kitchen and made the man's favourite meal. By now, he had just returned from seeing his concubine off. For the first time in many months the woman warmly invited him to the dining table, a request, to which he obliged reluctantly. So while he yet ate, the woman with all the courage she could muster, and with eyes full of a never ending stream of painful tears, she began to read out the qualities of this prodigal husband in an attitude of gratitude. Blessing, praising extolling, and appreciating him, until he couldn't stand it anymore. She'd with gratitude destroyed his unrepentant heart. He stopped eating, broke down apologizing spuriously. He confessed his many sins and asked for forgiveness. The couple made there and then fresh commitments to each other and that was the end of the "prodigality" in the man.

The benefits of gratitude cannot be over emphasized. This lady had complained all the while, but nothing changed. The story changed however, the moment she became grateful.
Kak Sri, said "Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture", indeed this lady painted her adversity in a lovely picture and framed it beautifully in gratitude.

There might be issues in our lives as you read this, this morning that will only change the moment you start being grateful...what are you waiting for?