Gratitude

THE ATTITUDE of gratitude is one of the finest characteristics that a human being can have; it is worth much more “than gold, yea, than much fine gold.” It is worth more than wealth or education. Many an uncultured, uneducated man has gone to the top because he knew and had the attitude of gratitude—the thankful heart. Samuel Johnson once said for all time: “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.”

The grateful child (and I have one) is a blessing all through life— the child that does not forget benefits previously given. The grateful friend is one whom you like to do favors for. The grateful student is one whom you will go out of your way to help. The grateful husband or wife is one who inspires more kindly deeds.

Appreciation begets appreciation, and gratitude begets gratitude. Recently I was reading through some early sermons of Henry Ward Beecher. In one of these sermons he used this simple parable: If one should give me a dish of sand and tell me that there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with my clumsy fingers and never detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep it through that dish of sand and that magnet would draw those tiny particles of iron to it through the power of the magnet’s attraction.

The unthankful heart is like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, so, it will find in every hour, minute, and second, some heavenly blessings; only the iron in God’s hand is gold.