This year has gone by so fast, I cannot believe it is already time for Thanksgiving. I am usually not the type of person that will take much time to reflect when a holiday approaches, but this year I am trying to make it a bit different. Thanksgiving can be a great opportunity for us to pause, and consider all the things that we can be grateful for. When we choose to practice gratefulness, it can lead to other positive changes in our lives. One of the positive changes that can come from being thankful is becoming more patient. In the culture we live in, patience is something that we all could use a little more of. It can affect more than one area in our lives.
Here are 3 ways to let gratitude foster patience this Thanksgiving:
1. Learning to Be Thankful in All Circumstances Helps Our Patience Grow
I can admit that I am probably not the most thankful person in a lot of areas in my life. The hardest time to be thankful is when things are not going well. We do need to process things, but the older I get I am realizing that having a bad attitude when times are tough doesn’t make it any easier. Instead, having an attitude of thankfulness can be powerful when I am facing hard times in my life.
Choosing to be thankful can offer a lot of hope when it seems like there is none. I can re-direct my thoughts from the impossible to the different ways the Lord has blessed my life. That does not mean forgetting about what I am going through, but being thankful can help sustain me when things get tough. When I develop an attitude of thankfulness, it allows me to grow in patience. So when something else in my life is difficult, I am not easily knocked off my feet.
I have been around people who are thankful and they have been through something hard. Those are the kind of people I want to be like. They inspire me, and they are people who are life-giving.
We need more people like this in our world.
2. Thankfulness Leads to Patience, Which Makes Us More Kind Merciful
When we are thankful, it starts to affect all areas of our life. Thankfulness helps us grow in patience, and patience can lead to us being more kind and merciful.
Being thankful opens up our eyes to where we might need to treat others better, and to the reality about ourselves. Often it can be hard to see where we each personally fall short. If I am not thankful, I can tend to be more judgmental of others and not very understanding. Whether I like it or not, I will be hurt by others, and people will not live up to my expectations. It can be hard to extend mercy to those who have hurt us, but when I am thankful, I remember how much I have been forgiven. I can’t refuse to be merciful when I have received so much mercy from Jesus.
Kindness is something that flows from being thankful. When someone has been kind to me, I know there is something different about them. They don’t think they are better than everyone else, and they see the value that each person has.
As I grow in thankfulness, I see things from a different perspective, and it makes me realize that I am no better than anyone else. I am just as human, and just as flawed as everyone else. When I get to this point, I am able to be more kind to people, and I am able to extend mercy.
I want to be more like this. It would impact those around us more than we even know, and make us a lot more like Jesus. There is enough bad things in this world, we need more kindness, and we need more people who extend mercy. It will only developed when we change our perspective, and begin to be grateful for the things that we have in our lives already.
What things can you be thankful for today? You might start to see positive changes in your life that will impact those around you.
3. Thankfulness Can Help Us Be Patient with Others
The final way that thankfulness helps us is to learn to be patient with others.
It is hard to have a negative attitude toward someone when trying to practice an attitude of thankfulness. When I have been more thankful, it makes me understand that I might need to have more patience with those around me. Thankfulness makes me more appreciative of others, how they are unique, and how they contribute to my life. I find that I don’t react in a negative way toward people when I get frustrated, and I won’t blow things out of proportion.
Being thankful causes me to be more empathetic toward others when they are facing something hard. I can understand that others may have needs, and not just focus on my own. The Lord has also taught me that thanking him for providing for me builds trust in our relationship, so I can be aware of how I can minister to others. Self-centeredness doesn’t take over as much when I know that Jesus takes care of me. What a beautiful way that shows having the ability to have patience with others.
Thankfulness can be something that could be beneficial for each one of us to practice in our lives. It has the ability to completely transform our lives if we let it. We can learn to be thankful in every circumstance that we face. Being thankful will make us more kind and merciful because we will understand that Jesus offers it to us, so how could we refuse to offer it to others. Thankfulness will allow us to be more patient with those around us and help us realize that each person has infinite value and worth in the eyes of the Lord.
Thankfulness and patience go so well together, it’s hard to have one without the other. When I look at the times in my life when I know I have been thankful, patience has been there in my life at the same moment. I think that it can go the other way as well, when I have chosen to practice patience, I can remember things that I have become thankful for as a result of it. Cultivating both of these qualities long-term though can be a challenge. Thankfully we have the help of the Holy Spirit to give us the power to make these qualities more part of who we are in our daily lives. My prayer for each one of us is that we would allow the Lord to do a work in our lives so that thankfulness and patience become things that would overflow from who we are, and not something that we would just remember on a holiday once a year.
May each one of you be blessed this Thanksgiving, and go out and be a blessing to others as well.
Related Resource: 5 Ways to Redefine Gratitude When Your Heart is Hurting
Have you ever felt judged or encouraged “to be thankful” when you share about a hard time you’re facing? Is it possible to even be thankful when your heart is hurting? In this episode of Breathe: The Stress Less Podcast, Bonnie dismantles the myth that in order to be thankful, you can’t struggle with suffering during hard seasons in life. Bonnie shares 5 ways to redefine gratitude so you can draw comfort from God and find encouragement when your heart is hurting. If this episode brings peace to the storm in your heart, be sure to subscribe to Breathe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/AaronAmat
Becky Weber is a wife, and mom to 4 kids. She loves to write and speak. She is a pastor’s wife in Sioux Falls, SD where her husband Adam is the lead pastor of Embrace Church. Her passion is to encourage others (especially women) to learn how to walk with Jesus on a daily basis. You can find more writing over at www.becweber.com and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.