“…giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ,…” Ephesians 5:20 (ESV)

Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.(Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)

Imagine training yourself to show gratitude to God. We believe God perceives gratitude in many ways. We believe when we count what we consider is a blessing, (literally writing them down on a piece of paper or making lists of minute details noticed in ordinary objects, menial chores and everyday life), that God perceives that act as gratitude because we are giving Him “credit” for those blessings, we believe He perceives that list as our way of noticing Him everywhere and in everything and that our act of simply counting them is like saying thank you. We believe when we sing a song of praise in church, in prayer, in the car, or even when scrubbing the toilet that God perceives that praise as gratitude. We believe when we find a way to see blessings in trials, illnesses, deaths, and any difficult situation that God perceives that act of finding a way even though we are hurting as an expression of gratitude because we are looking beyond the difficulty at His grace. We believe when we realize how abundantly He blesses us and we then are convicted that we are blessed to be a blessing to others and then act on that conviction, that God perceives that act as gratitude, because we are looking beyond ourselves and being His hands and feet in this world. We believe when we find joy in all things that He counts that joy as gratitude.

            These are the kinds of gratitude stories we are going to read about in this devotional. Stories from women in our church who have found ways to be thankful in all things. These are their stories of “Living a Life of Gratitude”.

CUMC Women’s Ministry