Gratitude and affirmations

 When I heard about the fires in the West, they seemed very far away, something that couldn’t happen here in Adams County, but after several years of drought, it has.  Two large fires are spreading rapidly in the state, near us. Towns that are very familiar and only miles away are being affected. People are being evacuated as the fires spread unchecked.  

I am praying for rain, hard rain, not the gentle soaking rain I usually pray for. But then I am not sure God is going to answer my prayers any more than he has answered the prayers of others also confronted with horrific fires.  After all, most of these fires are a direct result of abusing our planet, using fossil fuels foolishly, putting ourselves before our planet, and refusing to do what we can to go green.

It’s a beautiful day.  Spring has been glorious.  The redbud and dogwood are blooming.  Daily, the trees grow greener, yards are lush, and flowers are blooming. The sun is shining, the temperature is in the low 60s, and it’s a truly beautiful day.  Fires or no fires, I am filled with gratitude, reminded that each day is a gift, that even while we take tomorrow for granted, a tomorrow is not guaranteed. As I’ve often written,  there is never a place or situation that does not contain just as much good as bad in it, though we often have to pay attention to the blessings that tragedies and problems bring.  

It’s been three years since my husband’s death.  I still miss him, but there has been so much for which to be grateful.  Our daughter’s companionship. Time with grandchildren. Phone calls and visits from our other children who live at a distance.  Meals with friends.   A near-perfect spring day.  Birds at the feeder.  Being able to play in the dirt, to plant and transplant perennials, to pot and repot houseplants.  Enough to eat and wear.  Such things fill me with pleasure.   Gratitude is so gratifying.

An attitude of gratitude, if practiced consistently, eventually turns into a prayer of the heart, an ingrained approach to life.  Years ago, Henri Nouwen described the prayer of the heart in his little book about the desert fathers.  In it he told a story of a Russian peasant who went to a holy father and asked him to teach him to pray without ceasing.  This holy man claimed all he needed to do was repeat the Jesus prayer out loud: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner”  over and over as he walked, plowed, cleaned the stables, chopped wood…  If repeated often enough over a period of months, the Holy Father assured him, the words would move from his consciousness to his unconscious.  In so doing, he’d be praying without ceasing.  I decided to try this for myself, and after several months of repeating the Jesus prayer over and over,  I awoke one night to the words running through my mind.

That’s precisely the logic behind the 12-step program’s use of affirmations.  Pick one such as “I am a beautiful, worthwhile child of God,” or “An attitude of gratitude,” or “Let go and let God,” and run with it. One need not feel beautiful to benefit from such an affirmation.  One does not need to feel worthy to have the consistent use of affirmations transform their minds and hearts.  One does, however, need to do the work, to actually repeat such positive, affirming words over and over for days, weeks, and months. Eventually, I promise you, something will begin to shift inside.  That’s why we need to be very intentional about practicing affirmations and gratitude.  

I’ve also found that practicing gratitude and affirmations is a great way to work Steps 2, 3, and 11.  Becoming aware of the good things that are happening along with the bad begins to shift our thinking.  Saying thank you to others when they help us, even for the smallest things,  alters our mindset from despair to possibilities.   Simply by repeatedly reminding ourselves that we are a beautiful child of God, that we are not a worthless piece of you know what, we are giving our Higher Power permission to restore us to sanity.   By practicing gratitude, we are actually gradually turning our wills and lives over to the care and guidance of God as we understand God.  Practicing gratitude also improves our conscious contact with the God of our understanding for an important part of prayer and meditation is praise.

It can be challenging to practice gratitude when fires are burning, when things go wrong, and problems pile on problems.  But then, gratitude is all about perspective. It is about allowing us to cling to that which is good when there seems to be little for which to be grateful, when life seems filled with losses, when political fears fill the air.  While it isn’t easy to find something good in every situation, it is possible. That’s why practicing an attitude of gratitude can literally transform one’s life. There is such wisdom in Scripture’s admonition that we are to be thankful in and for all things.