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An Attitude Of Gratitude - Literature - Nairaland

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An Attitude Of Gratitude by offorkansi: 5:05am On Feb 02, 2013
Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried unsuccessfully to suppress my emotions. It was a normal sunday service and I had expected the usual excitement and occasional shouts from worshipers during sermon. But on this day, silence enveloped the long pews; the kind of silence that compels deep reflection. I had become increasingly dissatisfied with my new job barely one month after I was employed. Initially I complained about idling about at the office without doing much work, now I whined over heavy work load and overtime. My friends noticed that I had changed; I was no longer the happy, jolly good fellow they knew. In fact one of them told me that 'I look harassed'; Offor what is wrong with you, she quizzed, I don't like how you look, she added. So I came to church to pour out my mind to God, to ask him why he would give me a job that saps my energy to the point of looking harassed. Instead of getting succor from the pulpit, I received a damning rebuke; YOU ARE AN INGRATE. In a country where tens of millions of youths are unemployed, I was lucky not to be a part of that statistics. Hundreds of thousand of graduates finish school and roam the streets with files in search of jobs, two days to the end of my NYSC program I got a job as a Manager in a blue collar firm. Many of my mates were yet to graduate, most of my friends would love to trade places with me, some are even dead. As these thoughts and many more bombarded my mind, I realized how ungrateful I was for the blessings God had given me freely. I heard a story that aptly describes our attitude to God and to people around us. A young boy was visited by his Uncle; Uncle Uncle... bellowed the small boy, what did you bring for us? The Uncle handed him a bag of fruits and some chocolates, the boy's mother asked him; what will you say to uncle? The boy dipped his hand into the bag and stretched out an orange to his uncle and said "peel it for me". The Uncle and the mother burst into fits of laughter. God gives a husband, we complain he's poor. He gives us a child, we say he is stubborn. We pray to get married, then we turn around to say he's left us without kids. We have a roof over our heads but we complain it is small.
Let's get serious. We don't queue up in filling stations to refill our veins with blood neither do we pay for the air in our nostrils. We don't get charged for the sun that brightens our day or the moon that lightens our night. We are so carried away by the cares of life that we spare little thanks to the one who sustains us. It is only the living that can have challenges; if you want a life without problems then be prepared to die because as long as you are alive, challenges must come. Most times we don't receive from God because we haven't thanked him for the one he has given us. If the man with leprosy hadn't returned to Jesus with thanks, he wouldn't have received 'wholeness'. The other 9 lepers went their way thinking they had gotten it all. Appreciation is the key to multiplication! Jesus fed the five thousand after giving thanks. Develop an attitude of gratitude. You can't enjoy what you don't appreciate. To be upset about what you don't have is to waste you do have. Even human beings love to be appreciated. We walk with swagger when someone appreciates our dressing, women beam with smiles when you compliment their cooking, footballers play better when you cheer their efforts. A little 'thank you' could work magic; a note of appreciation would encourage your former teacher to teach better. Thank your parents for being patient with you when you were small, praise your spouse for the delicious food she cooks, show your friends how grateful you are for their friendship. It is not gratitude until you express it so don't think they know that you are grateful. Show it with words and actions.
When we let go of what we don't have, we begin to enjoy what we have. I look forward each day to my job, I see the challenges as a training for the bigger job. I approach each day with an attitude of gratitude and guess what, I received a pay raise just by thanking God and appreciating my job. A friend saw me last night and said I was looking finer than ever. Gratitude is the key to lasting satisfaction. We are frustrated not by what we don't have but for lack of appreciation of what we do have.
Gratitude is the best attitude!

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