Cultivating Gratefulness: A Path to Character Development
Exploring the essence of gratefulness in fostering character development, this content delves into the importance of recognizing and appreciating the blessings and relationships in our lives. It emphasizes how experiencing lack can lead to a deeper sense of gratitude and highlights the role of character in nurturing a culture of appreciation and thankfulness.
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Idaho Character Council,Inc. Creating a Culture of Character, One Person at a Time www.IdahoCharacterCouncil.com Government Community Justice Business FAMILY FAMILY Media/Communications Schools Faith Community
"Gratefulness" VS. Unthankfulness Sponsored by Super 1 Food
Gratefulness Gratefulness Vs. Unthankfulness Letting others know by my words and actions how they have benefited my life.
Why would it be necessary to give a class on thanking someone for benefiting your life? Should this be an automatic response? Are we so spoiled in America that we are no longer grateful for what we have, including the people that are in our lives? What will it take to bring this nation back to a state of gratefulness? Can it be brokenness?
Before anyone can be grateful for what they have, they need to be without it. People love their freedom after they have been in bondage for a long time. People love a home when they have lived on the street for a while. People are grateful for their children after they have been away from them for a while and then reunited. People are grateful for this country when you have been to other countries and seen their poverty and bondage. People are finally grateful for their job when they have been without food and shelter for a while.
It is character that makes a man grateful for his family, home, church, and finance without losing them all first. It is a lack of character when someone is unthankful for what they have. Gratefulness is a key character for success in life, because it s the people that you thank that will be here to return the act of gratefulness to you.
There is one thing in which you should be very grateful; only you and God know all the facts about yourself. Gratefulness is not deceiving the other person into believing that you are thankful for them, it is a heart condition and true gratitude for their kindness.
There is always something to be grateful for: If you can t pay your bills, be grateful that you are not one of your creditors who is not being paid for what they deserve. If you have nothing to be grateful for, make up your mind quick that there is something wrong with you. For you are not even grateful for the fact that you have the ability and mind to know that you are not grateful. I would be grateful for the brain to know that I was not grateful for the things that I should be grateful for.
If you cant be grateful for the good things that you have, be grateful for the bad things that you don t have. Just because you don t have all that you want, be grateful that you don t have all you deserve. For if we got what we deserved, we would be grateful for what we didn t have. Ask yourself: Have I got all that I deserved? or Have I got a speeding ticket every time I sped?
Did you survive the last accident that you were in? You may have been hurt real bad and not be grateful for the accident, but are you grateful you survived? It s all in the way we think. There is no gift that we can hold precious until we first are grateful for it. He who receives a good thing should never forget it, he who does one, should never remember it.
If you have had a door of opportunity, there has been friends along the way who have oiled their hinges to make an easier entrance. Do you know who they are? Have you ever thanked them? This may be something that you might want to do today. Write a letter, or phone the person that helped get you where you are. Share your gratefulness with them.
Grateful: This word is broken into two words: first being great, then being full. A person that is full and can see that his friends and family have helped fill him, this man is great. When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are starting to become grateful for the life that you have.
Martin Luther wrote in his book, Table Talk: The greater God s gifts and works, the less they are regarded. A hungry man is more thankful for his morsel than a rich man for his heavy laden table. A lonely woman in a nursing home would appreciate a visit more than a popular woman with a party thrown in her honor. A Russian who finally gets his personal copy of the Holy Scriptures after 75 years is more thankful for his little book then we are with all the Christian books ad magazines and translations that overflow our shelves. Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they are there every night, we barely give them a look.
Gratefulness reverses this pattern, it allows us to see things in a new, bright, and spectacular way. Gratefulness adds life to other people.
personal Write a letter to someone that you are very grateful for. This letter should be to someone that you have not thanked for something that they have done for you. In this letter, write your feelings to them on how you feel towards what they have done for you. A letter of gratitude to someone that has blessed you. Let us know how this changed the relationship between you and that person.
Group Give an example of someone that has added greatly to your life and how it effected you in the long run.
Mark Your Calendars! Next Leader s Character Breakfast: "Generosity" VS. Stinginess Sponsored by Thursday, April 10, 2003 Ironhorse Restaurant, Cd A Every 2nd Thursday of each month, 7:00am-8:10am, 1st 30 people are free!
