January 23, 2014 | Eye For Beauty

I received some inspiring and wise letters this week. May God encourage you with them as He has me. – WB

Makes you smarter

Wayne, an app/blog community sponsored by business consultants SY Partners had this post on gratitude:

There’s not a single downside to gratitude – except that it’s easy to ignore. When put into practice, gratitude creates a virtuous circle. It fosters contentment, joy, respect, and connection to our world and the people in it. Gratitude makes us feel good inside. And when we share it, other people feel good inside. And you know what happens then: The feel-good-insiders send their goodwill to more people, who in turn start feeling good inside. Good feelings boomerang everywhere.

Now if that sounds too absurdly optimistic, consider this: free-flowing gratitude can help you get unstuck. “Feeling good lubricates mental efficiency, making people better at understanding information and using decision rules in complex judgments,” writes psychologist Daniel Goleman in his book Primal Leadership. Translation: It makes you smarter.

The rub is, we can’t just hit-and-run with gratitude – you know, give a little to get a little. Any feel-good spike we may achieve will quickly erode. But if we consider and express gratitude regularly, then we can maintain our good feelings. It’s a matter of creating the habit. – By Unstuck |November 25, 2013

Eye for beauty

Wayne, the study of biblical gratitude led me to Philippians 4:8, a verse years ago as part of section from 4-8; but when I read it this morning, I was strongly convicted by the Holy Spirit. I realized that my habit is to meditate on what is wrong with this picture, what is ugly, and/or the evil that might come about. As you have pointed out this is hardly conducive to an attitude of gratitude. I’ve asked the Lord to forgive me and work in me so that I will develop an eye for the beautiful. My habit will become one of meditation on what is true, what is noble, what is just, what is lovely, what is virtuous and praiseworthy (NKJV). Then I can rejoice in the beauty of the Lord and be grateful to Him for all He has provided for us, especially His righteousness for us in Jesus by the faith that He has given us.

Emptiness of immediate gratification

Dear Pastor Wayne, some of your thoughts resurrected in my mind a storybook tale from The Book of Virtues by William Bennett. The French tale “The Magic Thread” is a reminder that a focus on happiness versus gratitude will end in a life of emptiness. I haven’t room to copy the whole story, but Mr. Bennett’s introduction summarizes well:

Too often, people want what they want (or what they think they want, which is usually “happiness” in one form or another) right now. The irony of their impatience is that only by learning to wait, and by a willingness to accept the bad with the good, do we usually attain those things that are truly worthwhile.