GRATITUDE TAKES US FORWARD

A Remarkable Finding?

Warren E. Berkley

In this season with valuable emphasis on gratitude, may I bring up something worthy of thought? You may be shocked.

I recently encountered something I consider remarkably disappointing about our secular culture.

Visiting a website, I stumbled onto the headline: “How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain,” (see source information below).

Believing this to be true, I started reading the article.

“Recent evidence suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results.”

Context: a team of researchers were tasked with finding a non-pharmaceutical response to depression (apparently, they were not funded by the pharmaceutical companies). They did their research, accounted for all their collected data, poured over case studies and conducted interviews. Finally, the findings were published under the headlines: New Research!

Their conclusion: “In our research, we have zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude.”

It is remarkable but it happens all the time. The secular humanistic mind-set discovers something, labels it as “new” and sign their collective names to it. Yet, what they have “discovered” or “devised,” is some obvious capacity God has built into us and commanded us to use, for our peace of mind and His glory!

Of course, gratitude helps you when you are down and helps you going forward. It is positive, having to do with blessings granted by the One who made us in His image.

The same document says, “…many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed.”

AMAZING. They make it sound like nobody knew this until recent intellectual masterminds came out of their laboratory! (They’ve never heard the song, “Count Your Many Blessings?” It was published in 1897! I think this was before the “studies” of “past decades.”)

Sincere gratitude picks us up and takes us forward. Long before “recent studies” and “new research,” and even long before 1897, Paul said: “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” (Phil. 4:6,7).

Thank you for your time.

Source: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain