How can Attitude & Gratitude make a difference in our lives?
Research has indicated that when people take time to be thankful or grateful, it can make them happier, healthier, and encourage them to count their blessings each day.
Our attitude stems from our willingness to have a good disposition or to have a negative disposition.
Life is not always pleasant or the way we plan it.
We cannot control everything that happens around us or to us, but we can control our attitude!
Choosing Positivity
If you are dealing with a situation that is causing you to have a negative attitude, stop and adjust your thinking before you become a negative person.
Having a positive attitude can lead to gratitude.
Gratitude is a necessary response to the good things we have received. Pope Francis has said:
"If we can realize that everything is God’s gift, how happy will our hearts be! Everything is his gift. He is our strength!"
It’s about living in the moment -- and embracing all of beauty, love, and abundance in our lives. And they are there – we need to see them!
Simple Practices
A Franciscan Friar told me,
“Put a smile on, even if you don’t feel like it!” When you make it a habit to smile, it can bring about a feeling of gratitude for the little or simple things in life."
It makes sense! So often, we would rather not smile, or not feel good about certain responsibilities.
Put on a smile and ask God for His blessing for the day, for that moment, for that person you are facing.
Gratitude gets our focus off ourselves and back on God.
He desires our eyes to be set on Him, because that's where our true hope is found.
He is worthy of our praise, no matter what we face from day to day.
Words to Remember
Two words to help us each day:
Attitude can help us move forward, and Gratitude can help us count our blessings.
Mary Jane Fox, D.C.H.S. is Co-Founder & Co-Director of Pilgrim Center of Hope with her husband, Deacon Tom Fox. The two left their careers after a profound conversion experience and began working full-time in ministry at their parish in 1986. After several years and having impacted tens of thousands of families, the Foxes founded Pilgrim Center of Hope in 1993 as a response to the Church’s call for a New Evangelization. Mary Jane is an invested member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a Dame of the Holy Sepulchre.
Pilgrim Center of Hope provides events, experiences, and media; initiating a desire in people to encounter Jesus Christ in their daily journey of life. See what’s happening & let us journey with you! Visit PilgrimCenterOfHope.org.
