QUESTIONER: Some people accept the good things of life as a matter of course without even thinking of being grateful, but there are others who genuinely feel that they have nothing to be grateful for. They feel life isn't treating them fairly, that they lack the things which make life interesting, happy, and worthwhile, and so they naturally ask, "Why should [ be grateful?"

SPEAKER: One can't really be thankful for anything until he places a proper value on it. An ungrateful person doesn't recognize the value or even the presence of good all around him. But even the most unhappy, wretched individual has the gift of life. He has the opportunity to let this like, however humble, shine forth with a spark of divinity, with a spark of compassion, kindness, and unselfishness.

Here in the United States, as you know. Thanksgiving Day began with thanksgiving to God for survival. The Pilgrim Fathers gave thanks to God for even simple things such as an ear of corn or a piece of bread. They must have recognized the value of gratitude and the need of thanksgiving to God. Now you teach your young children the practice of gratitude and appreciation of good, and why?

QUESTIONER: Because it's helpful to them to be aware of the good that they have.

SPEAKER: That's right. You're teaching them to put a proper value on good and not just to take good for granted. Now in like manner, exorcising gratitude to God doesn't change our relationship to Mini, but it opens our thought to the realization of where good really comes from. That's why the Bible tells us so frequently to praise God, to acknowledge God as the source of good .

A willingness to look to God for His lovingkindness and to recognize His grace in our lives is the start of spiritual growth, spiritual progress. This awakens us to a deeper meaning of gratitude.

QUESTIONER: What about those people who honestly cannot think of anything to be grateful for?

SPEAKER: Well, we all may need to dig for this good: that is cultivate the habit of recognizing the spiritual qualities that man already includes. He includes God-given joy, health, love, peace, intelligence, and ability. God, divine Love, is actually the source of all good, but that good is spiritual. Because of man's unity with God, man already includes all good right where lie is.

The Psalmist recognized good as always at hand, for he said (52:1), "The goodness of God endureth continually." And Christ Jesus continually acknowledged God's goodness. He thanked God before healings appeared. For instance, the Master was sure that Lazarus would be raised from the dead. He thanked God for hearing his prayer, and he raised Lazarus from the dead.

QUESTIONER: Then couldn't we say to people who think they have nothing to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day, "Be thankful for the good that's about to come into your life"?

SPEAKER: Well, I don't like to put good off or to think that it is going to come. We have something to be grateful for right where we are. I know of healings that have taken place when an individual thanked God for the good that he didn't even see.

Perhaps I can use an illustration. I know two young men that were in business together, and they were having considerable financial difficulty. They signed a contract to do certain construction work; and in order to do the work, they had to borrow from everyone that would lend anything to them. The company with whom they dealt promised to pay the bill as soon as the work was completed. But upon completion of the work, the company said it would be several months before they would be able to pay for the contract.

Now both of these young men were new students of Christian Science, and one of them called a Christian Science practitioner for help. And it's interesting that the practitioner asked first: "Is the work well and properly done? Has value been given?"

The young man answered, "Yes."

The practitioner told him, "Well, now you be grateful, and I will begin prayerful work."

The businessman replied: "Well, what in the world is there to be grateful for? We need the money, and we do not have it."

The practitioner reminded him, "As I recall, you trusted your life with God a few months ago and were healed through Christian Science of an incurable disease. So can't you trust God with your business?" The answer, of course, was "Yes."

He went back to his partner and told him what the practitioner had said. And they searched their thought to find something to be grateful for. But they were so concerned about the financial situation, they couldn't see a thing to be grateful for. Then they came up with the idea of singing hymns. Although they had no thought of what to be grateful for, they were trying to praise God.

During the singing of these hymns the idea came to one of them that they could go about asking for their money in a different manner. Within an hour they had their money in full. Now what was it that took place? The praising of God opened their thought to a right answer, a solution to their problem. Now in singing the hymns they weren't thinking about the money. They were thinking about the words which were expressing praise to God, and they were endeavoring to be grateful.

QUESTIONER: People often go to church on Thanksgiving Day to thank God for all He's given them. Isn't there a more active way of showing gratitude?

SPEAKER: Yes, there is. We've got to go further than that. You see, as we have an overflowing love for God and for our fellowmen, we express gentleness, patience, and kindness. That's gratitude in action. That's not just words. When we're grateful that we're alive, we express that gratitude.

I noticed one time in riding a streetcar that the people sitting on the seats were a mighty glum-looking lot. Everybody seemed to be quite concerned, worried, and distressed. And a little three-year-old girl came in skipping and jumping, with a smile, and every face in that streetcar changed. They saw the joy and the spontaneity in that little girl.

Well, we can have that same confidence, that same joy in the realization that our Father-Mother God is caring for us in every detail of our experience. In other words, let's live gratitude instead of just talking it, because we all have a great deal for which to be grateful. We have freedom and joy and opportunities. The best way to have gratitude is to share it and the more you share it, the more you'll have. The power of gratitude awakens us to the good that's already at hand, and when we are awakened even a little, then we feel the result in healing, in inner joy and peace.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 6): "'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go." And elsewhere in the same book she writes (p. 3): "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more."