Article November 21, 1936 Issue

The Importance of Gratitude

LILA P. BASEL

"Praise ye the Lord." "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad"—indeed hundreds of references to such words as thanksgiving, rejoicing, and joy are to be found in the Bible. Likewise, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we find frequent use of the terms gratitude, joy, rejoicing, gladness, and kindred expressions. Since our Leader has also written (ibid., p. 406), "The Bible contains the recipe for all healing," it behooves us to take heed to the thought processes prescribed by the Bible and its inspired "key." Food for thought is given us as to the value of incorporating these joyous qualities in our every-hour thinking.

Sometimes, in the midst of turmoil, when one seems beset by problems, and fleshly beliefs cry out for recognition, it seems well-nigh impossible to find causes for joy and gratitude. Depression attempts to take possession of our thinking, and we may wonder what cause we have for thanksgiving. Has not everything gone wrong? Friends have proved unfriendly, supply has apparently been cut off, business associates perhaps seem unfair, and physical ills beset our path. Ah, but right now is the time to shut out such suggestive mesmerism and begin the process of changing our thoughts. At this moment we most need to turn thought Godward, and meditate upon good and its many evidences in our experience. But how, one asks? We can begin by being grateful that God is. Since God is, good is. Thus we have established in consciousness a basis for gratitude, as our revered Leader has succinctly written (ibid., p. 15), "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God."

God, who is good, could not send evil or permit it. Thus these seeming trials and ills are not real or true; and in this fact we perceive further cause for thanksgiving. Gladness begets sureness, and vice versa. We rejoice that God could not make a dishonest man, a hateful one, or one who could manifest impurity. It is our joyous privilege to see that man cannot change from health to sickness, from honesty to dishonesty, or from abundance to lack. It is the Christian Scientist's happy duty to declare that the peoples of the earth form one great brotherhood; and as we apply this line of reasoning instantly and in every incident, we find opportunities without number for uplifting our thought and seeing externalized the effect of true thinking.

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