— Encouragement —
Published Date: November 17, 2025
Thanksgiving Day is on its way, grasping for air as it sits between an ever growing Halloween Day and the usual crunch of Christmas. As a nation, we need a strong Thanksgiving Day. We need it to remind each of us of the powerful, positive impact that an attitude of gratitude plays in promoting and producing good emotional, mental, physical, relational, and spiritual health. Author A. J. Jacobs makes that point in his book Thanks a Thousand. His book resulted from him one day taking time to ponder what it would be like to personally thank every person responsible for his/her role in making possible the cup of coffee that he was drinking. Upon further reflection Jacobs decided to do that very thing – to personally thank the barista, the coffee bean farmer, and everyone in between. When his journey had taken him to the one-thousandth person, he stopped – hence the title of his book. His book highlights studies about gratitude and thanksgiving which show that “gratitude is the single best predictor of well-being and good relationships.”1
What is gratitude? Gratitude is an attitude of thankfulness and appreciation which individuals have for the blessings they receive in life for which they have done nothing to produce or provide. Thanksgiving is the outward expression – the loud speaker of the heart – for the gratitude one feels at any given moment. Gratitude may be spontaneous or a settled disposition growing out of what priest, author, and theologian Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) meant when he said, “Gratitude…claims that all of life is a pure gift.”2 That’s what the Psalmist understood regarding gratitude when he said, “ Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 107:1).” There is no room in a grateful heart for a spirit of prideful self-sufficiency or entitlement. There’s only room for a spirit of humility that recognizes one’s dependence on God and others, and which serves as the seedbed for a spirit of gratefulness. Gratitude is good medicine for many things that ail us. Let me suggest just a few.
It’s good medicine for discontentment.
That’s the wisdom shared by Aesop, a slave and storyteller who lived in Greece between 620-564 BC, when he said, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”3 Discontentment, that gnawing feeling of ongoing dissatisfaction which arises from a feeling of never having enough, is a great thief. It steals joy. It steals peace. It steals thankfulness that was felt when a blessing was initially received. Discontentment causes a person to sacrifice present blessings on the altar of more. Gratitude is medicine for discontentment because it turns the focus from self, which is at the root of discontentment, and puts the focus on God and His human agents of blessing.
It’s good medicine for unhappiness.
American Benedictine monk and author David Steindl-Rast spoke wisely when he said, “Happiness does not lead to gratitude. Gratitude leads to happiness.”4 Happiness, like all emotions, is a personal choice we make in response to life circumstances. Happiness is not dependent upon circumstances. Happiness is dependent upon our attitude toward those circumstances. That’s why God’s word tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV).” Not for all circumstances, but in all circumstances. Even during difficult life circumstances, we can find something about which to be thankful – for wisdom gained, lessons learned, character developed, faith strengthened, peace and joy experienced, greater awareness of the love of God. Giving thanks keeps life from going sour when life goes south. Gratitude creates an environment where happiness can grow and joy can flourish.
It’s good medicine for discouragement.
An old parable tells of a man who visited the devil’s seed house. Satan bragged about his ability to sow seeds of discouragement. He then sighed, “The only place I cannot get them to grow is in a grateful heart.”5 Gratitude arising from our pondering the goodness of God reminds us that we are not in this life alone. Gratitude for God’s presence and provision in our lives, and for the ministry in our lives by those individuals who serve as His agents of love, mercy, and grace, encourages us to trust God even more and to stand strong when difficulties and storms in life come upon us.
It’s good medicine for “blessings amnesia”
…especially as we take time to reflect upon how good we have it in life. That was one of the important lessons learned by a man named John Kralik. Kralik found himself not where he wanted to be in life. He’d burned through two marriages, didn’t have the relationship he desired with his children, and his law practice showed little profit for the long hours he worked. During his time of discouragement, he remembered that his grandfather had often emphasized the importance of gratitude. So, he decided to write 365 thank you notes over the next twelve months. Quickly he noticed an improvement in his attitude and circumstances. A year later he penned a memoir about his experience. He titled it A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life. One of the first things he learned – “you realize you have a much better life than you thought.”6
If we’re not careful, we’ll suffer from “blessings amnesia” and never know it. As a way of dealing with it, I encourage you to do for yourself what I did about a year ago that reminded me how blessed my life has been and continues to be. Acting on a suggestion I read in a daily devotional book, I took a pen and paper and listed everything I could think of for which I was thankful. The impact? I knew before making the list that I have had a very good life. Making the list enabled me to realize how much better my life has been, how much better God has been to me than I’d ever taken time to realize and enumerate. Periodically I review the list and add to it if something new comes to mind. My blessings amnesia has been cured.
As important as these “medicinal” benefits are, there is one more that rises above the rest. Philippians 4:6-7 reminds us that when combined with prayers of petition, gratitude is great medicine for worry which robs a person of his/her peace. Hear the words of the Apostle Paul as they speak to the worried soul, “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Gratitude, which is generated from a person’s belief that all of life is a gift from God and that He is the provider and protector of His creation and His children, serves as reinforcement steel for one’s faith and trust in God. When our faith is buttressed by our expressions of thanksgivings to God for who He is, what He has done, and all that He has promised He will do, when we then offer our requests to God, we will find His peace guarding “our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Knowing that ahead of time, why then should we worry?
Gratitude. Good medicine for what ails us. Happy Thanksgiving.
1A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand, 2018, p.2, as cited by In Other Words, www.iows.net.
2HenriNouwen.org, as cited by In Other Words, www.iows.net.
3Beaumont Enterprise, 2020 as cited by In Other Words, www.iows.net
4A.J. Jacobs, ibid.
5Preaching Magazine, Spring 2019, p. 59, as cited by In Other Words, www.iows.net.
6Reader’s Digest, October 2016, p.46, as cited by In Other Words, www.iows.net.
Jerry Long is a retired pastor and member of Taylors First Baptist Church. He is the author of Ponderings of a Pastor which is available at Amazon.
