Article August 5, 1933 Issue

Attitude of Gratitude

ALMA SCHIERBAUM

Someone has said that you must never think of anything that will turn the corners of your mouth down. No person will deliberately choose drab-colored thoughts or wear a doleful countenance. But how to free one's self from certain dreaded or impending situations that appear grave, how to gain deliverance from serious conditions without being mesmerized into fear or sadness, are questions that many men ponder in their hearts, searching for their answer. What but an attitude of gratitude—the ability to find in the midst of every difficult experience of life something of good for which to be grateful—can lift up one's thoughts and turn the corners of one's mouth up? Christian Science teaches men to know God as He is—infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent good; and this gives one so much food for gratitude that any disposition toward sorrow or pessimism must give way before it.

Christian Scientists are said to be a particularly happy group of people. All its sincere students should carry in their hearts a song of gratitude, for they know that gratitude and joy clothe their consciousness with an invincible armor and are antidotes for the ills of mankind. Mrs. Eddy discerned the importance of this quality, for she wrote in the Church Manual (Art. XVII, Sect. 2), "Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years." Christian Scientists learn that obedience to this By-Law develops the spirit of gratitude.

There is a great difference between the letter and the spirit of true Christianity, and there is this same diversity between the letter and the spirit of true gratitude. It may be easy to talk about gratitude; but this is not enough. Gratitude must be lived—proved. "Serve the Lord with gladness," the Psalmist counseled. David understood the value of gladness, or active gratitude. Had he not proved it for himself time after time? He knew how to prove his gratitude to God.

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