Thanksliving: How Gratitude Can Change Your Life

Renee Wixon
Mar 7
5 min read

Living a life of gratitude or “Thanksliving” is one of the most powerful things you can do for you and your kids. Gratitude is connected to wisdom and true success.

Being thankful, counting your blessings, noticing simple things like the beauty all around you, and acknowledging everything that you receive are gratitude. Living a life of gratitude shifts your focus from you to God, from what you lack to what you have. To be grateful doesn’t mean that everything in your life is going well. It just means that you are aware of and thankful for the blessings you have. Practicing gratitude is a transformative practice and way of life.

Our gratefulness is ultimately pointed to God, but it overflows to everyone around us. Like water breaking over a dam, gratitude floods out and soaks through to our families and anyone else in our path.

The Bible is full of praise and worship to God. There are many verses that tell us to be thankful regardless of circumstance (not necessarily for the circumstance). God promised us peace and joy when we live a life of prayer and thankfulness. On the flip side, thanklessness is a form of pride and is “anti-truth.” Ungratefulness keeps us from having a deep relationship with God.

I love it when science simply confirms God’s truth. There is a lot of good research that proves that gratitude makes you healthier and happier. Gratitude improves:

Physical health

Grateful people are physically healthier and take better care of themselves. They exercise more and live longer. People who intentionally practice gratitude before bed sleep better and longer

Psychological health and mental strength

Being grateful is directly associated with higher self-esteem/self-respect. Grateful people are happier and significantly less depressed and stressed. They are more alert, enthusiastic, creative, determined, energetic and optimistic than non-grateful people. They also are more emotionally resilient and able to endure hard circumstances.

Relationships

Showing appreciation can help you win friends and deepen relationships. Acknowledging others, writing thank you notes, and other ways of thanking people makes others more receptive to friendship or a deeper relationship. Gratefulness also makes people more sensitive and empathetic to the needs of others while reducing aggression and violence.

How do you begin?

There are many strategies you can use to become a more grateful person. I start with simply asking God to help me to be more mindful and thankful.

Start small and be mindful. Notice and appreciate each day’s gifts. Since we regularly take what we already have for granted (sight, food, clothing, relationships, etc.), imagine losing those things and how you would feel to get them back.

Understand that gratefulness and thankfulness are choices you make. As with any circumstance, you always have a choice in your response.

Use gratitude to put things in perspective. Reframe tough situations into learning experiences. Think about the benefits of hard circumstances. Ask yourself, “what is good about this?” “what can I learn or benefit?”

Go on a fast from gossip, criticism and complaining, instead choose to be thankful for the good aspects of a person or circumstance. Every time you begin to think a negative thought about a situation or a person, replace the complaint or criticism with a grateful thought.

Keep a gratitude journal. Each day write down 3 to 10 things you are grateful for.

Make it a habit to thank and acknowledge others around you.

Once you begin to live a life of Thanksliving, you will begin to appreciate simple pleasures and things you’ve taken for granted. It will help you to see the good in tough circumstances and teach your kids to have a positive, affirming attitude.

Verses about Developing a Habit of Thankfulness

Colossians 1:12

And giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Colossians 2:7

Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of once body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Hebrews 13:15

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

Psalm 7:15

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.

Psalm 9:1

I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 28:7

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 86:12

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 147:7

Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to God on the harp.

Romans 1:20-21

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Psalm 100:4-5

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:3-5

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.