Yesterday, for some reason, I made my lesson for the day Lesson 123, “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” Each time I said this line, I tried to get in touch with something I’m thankful to God for. I realized two things, both important.
First, I realized that the specific gifts of God in my life are not scattered items, but nearly everything. With almost every major thing in my life—marriage, children, colleagues, spiritual path, function, home, etc.—I have a lengthy story of guidance and unlikely events that to me is directly suggestive that God is responsible for that thing being in my life. It felt really good to realize this. I expected to find nice nuggets here and there that seemed to come from God. Instead, I spent the day appreciating how much the architecture of my life has come from God’s guidance and orchestration, and how entirely different my life would be if I didn’t have God to rely on. It not only felt good, it also made a lot of sense. If God really is my Father, then of course He should be the source not just of my heavenly being, but of my earthly life as well.
I’ll be honest. I do carry a background sense that God hasn’t really come through for me. So many things I’ve hoped for either haven’t come to pass or seem to only be coming on some sort of patience-taxing installment plan. Focusing instead on what I have received from God felt not only happier, but also healthier, even more honest.
Second, I realized that I really am grateful for certain abstract, eternal truths. I have long noted that in this lesson, the things we are meant to be grateful for are largely abstract. Notice the following paragraph from that lesson:
Give thanks that He has not abandoned you, and that His Love forever will remain shining on you, forever without change. 2 Give thanks as well that you are changeless, for the Son He loves is changeless as Himself. 3 Be grateful you are saved. 4 Be glad you have a function in salvation to fulfill. 5 Be thankful that your value far transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments of the one whom God established as His Son.
Notice that most of the things we are supposed to be grateful for here are not of this earth: “that His Love forever will remain shining on you…that you are changeless…that your value far transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments.” When we think of being grateful to God, do we think this abstractly? And if we don’t, if we only think of checks showing up in the mail, isn’t that a statement of where we have placed our value?
So sometimes I focused on being thankful for things in my life and then other times focused on being thankful for more abstract things. I said things like, “I thank my Father for establishing me in paradise forever,” or “I thank my Father for making me an infinite Self that I cannot screw up.” This felt really good, too, for I found that I truly am grateful for these more abstract things. There actually was genuine gratitude there. It wasn’t just pasted-on “I am ‘grateful’ because this book says I’m supposed to be.”
My practice wasn’t as consistent as it could be. I was out and about with the family, since it was a holiday. But I kept with my lesson and it definitely lifted my mood the entire day. There is something about gratitude that completes the process of receiving. I’ve noticed that my receiving always grows fuller when I let myself be grateful. And that’s what this lesson did for me. When I really think about it, I really do feel I’ve received so much from God. By focusing on the resultant gratitude, that sense of receiving just grew fuller in my mind.
