With Thanksgiving and the holidays upon us, I can’t help but to look back on everything that has happened over the past year. This past year has brought many ups and many downs, but through it all I can say like the old song, “God’s been good in my life.” I have so much to be thankful for and I am blessed beyond measure, but the sad part is, I don’t always express my “Attitude of Gratitude” for all the good things in my life. Our human nature always tends to lean toward the negative things and negative people. We rarely will tell or brag on people that do great things and have great attitudes, but we are always quick to share our negative experience with other people or to blast it on social media. But, If we go back and read through many of the Psalms or even use the Psalms as a daily prayer, I think our life would start down a path that we all need to walk down. Here are some of my favorite Psalms that talk about Thanks or Thanksgiving.

Psalms 107:1 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

Psalms 100 tells us to enter his gates with Thanksgiving in our hearts.

Psalms 95 and 100 are also great chapters to read and reflect on.

Many times throughout the Psalms and the rest of the Bible it teaches us to be thankful to God, for he is good and his mercy endures forever. Our thankfulness should never be just about the material things that we have, but what God has done in our life. I’m so thankful that God changed me as a person and I am not the same person that everyone knew 15-20 years ago. If God never blesses me with anything else, for the rest of my days on earth, I can still have an “Attitude of Gratitude.” In addition to the Bible, recent studies also show that having an “Attitude of Gratitude” actually rewires your brain. The study says when someone says “thank you” and they actually mean it, that it begins to rewire your brain to be a happier person. It claims that as a result of being happy and grateful that people are more optimistic and positive, more physically active, have less anxiety and depression, better moods, less fatigue, less inflammation, less doctor visits, and reduced risk of heart failure. All of this said to come from having an “Attitude of Gratitude,” all of this for just being thankful. It sounds like a trial run of this study is definitely worth the while and cheaper than a trip to the doctor’s office. The article also offered three steps on how to have an “Attitude of Gratitude.” These steps are not only to be used when things are going great, but even in times when everything is not going our way. These are the things we can reflect back on and be thankful and remember that even in our valleys we are blessed beyond what we deserve most of the time.

Step 1 – Journal in the morning or before bed and list at least three things that you were thankful for.

Step 2 – For all the people in your life that you appreciate, tell them on a daily basis.

Step 3 – Look in the mirror — think about a quality of yourself that you like, think of something that you have accomplished recently, or think of something that God has done in your life.

I think if we all reflected on these three steps on a daily or weekly basis we would start remembering on how blessed that we are. It’s easy to sit back and think about the things that have gone wrong in our life and maybe some of the tough times we have been through. But, if we start to reprogram ourselves to be thankful we can change our attitude and eventually everything that surrounds us.

This holiday be thankful for the people and the family that you are surrounded with, be thankful for your church and church family, be thankful for the community that we live in, be thankful that we live in the United States of America. We are truly blessed if we just take the time to look around. Then, if we look back and realize how blessed we are, share some of those blessings with someone around you this holiday. Have an “Attitude of Gratitude” this Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then take that same attitude into the New Year for 2020. Have a Blessed Holiday!!

(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young, Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, David Odom)