Genuine Gratitude
Live the life you really want and will experience genuine gratitude.
For many years I was extremely self-sufficient. I didn’t need help from anyone. I could earn money, I was healthy and I was good at making friends.
That way of living worked for me for many years. It wasn’t until I decided to live by faith that my understanding of gratitude changed.
I didn’t know true gratitude until I could no longer make things happen by myself. I was fortunate enough to have a good job that paid well, but over time it became a trap.
Let me explain.
It became a trap because as I started to get to know myself, I realized the job wasn’t a good fit for me.
I have always been grateful for my nursing training and career, but when I had outgrown it, it became drudgery. I no longer enjoyed it.
I saw many friends leave nursing in an instant, but I found it harder to take that leap of faith. It came to a point where the job I disliked so much became the center of my life.
I needed it because all my expenses had increased and so I found myself trapped in a vicious cycle of doing a job I didn’t like to pay for an apartment I didn’t want. I was miserable.
It was hard to be grateful for my life when I had given up on my dreams. I was learning to just be grateful for my health, so I could keep going.
Genuine gratitude does not exist as long as I am self-sufficient or settling for less. When we don’t go for what we want in life, it’s hard to be truly grateful. We can fake it of course, but it doesn't work. We feel it in our hearts.
I used to say, I’m grateful for my health, my family, and the roof over my head, etc. and I was. Believe me, when it’s gone you know all about it, but I didn’t experience that feeling of dependence when I was self-sufficient.
People would tell me I should be grateful for my job even if I was stressed and miserable. But I knew I had made a big mistake.
I stopped trusting God and because I didn’t listen to that still small voice within, I found myself in a self-made prison.
Yes, there were outside circumstances that lead to it. Our country ran into a ten-year recession, but I have learned not to make excuses.
I decided to take personal responsibility and take action to improve the quality of my life.
The Self-Sufficiency Trap
A life without risks is no life. I know because I lived that way, but when I started to take steps of faith towards realizing my dreams, gratitude started to take on a whole new meaning.
I had to make sacrifices. I had to do without, I had to live in cheaper accommodation, give up my car, just have less financially, not to mention giving up status and image.
I invested my time and money into education because I felt hungry for more knowledge. I didn’t know exactly why, but I trusted it. I trusted myself.
I knew there would be a reason for it, so I just enjoyed the journey. I experienced many moments of genuine gratitude for all my small wins along the way. This is how I learned to appreciate my life.
Real gratitude touches the soul and makes you feel alive!
As I press on towards my desires, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for being saved from a life of drudgery.
I feel grateful for moving into something new and the reason the gratitude is so deep and genuine is that I worked so hard to turn my life around.
On my journey from self-sufficiency to faith, I had no choice but to depend on God to get me through. I didn’t always have that kind of faith. I used to be annoyed with myself for not having the courage to just let go and trust.
You know the expression — “jump and the net will appear.” Well, it took me a while to jump. And when I did, I often found myself in very tight corners where I wondered where the next penny would come from.
I was horrified that God would lead me into such poverty. Most people thought I was crazy, but I had made my decision and I wasn’t going to give up.
I had left my life of misery behind and I was building a new life, by faith. There was no turning back, I had sold everything and left my country.
You wouldn’t believe how exciting it is when you see that little bit of money come in from some source you hadn’t expected.
I started to understand the meaning of trusting, believing, and giving thanks for the first time in my life.
I had no safety net — I only had God, but that was enough.
A few times I wondered would I make it, but now I know I will, because the more risks you take and see God come through, the more it builds your faith.
Little miracles have become a regular part of my life and synchronicities are the norm.
Only three months ago, I started writing on Medium and I was so excited about it. This is just another one of those wonderful surprises that happened as I moved out of my comfort zone.
I am genuinely grateful to Medium for the opportunity to develop my writing skills and I’m deeply grateful to Know Thyself Heal Thyself which arrived at a perfect time in my life too.
Diana C. has been so welcoming and encouraging. She has provided a space for writers to explore their innermost thoughts and emotions. She’s a blessing!
It’s all about timing. When we trust the flow of life, our needs get met without us even having to do anything.
The writing community on Medium has certainly met a need in me to engage with writers and editors. I was looking for something like this, but I had no idea where I would find it.
For me, this has been one of the beauties of letting go and trusting — having the right need met by the right people at the right time. It’s truly magical when you see the divine at work in your life.
I had the most unlikely people help me unravel and heal pieces of my life. They didn’t even know how the things they did or said impacted me in such a deep way. Often, they were just being themselves and it sparked off revelations in me.
It’s incredible how many times this has happened to me as I’ve been traveling.
When you take steps to faith and let go of what’s no longer working in your life, you will be astonished at how quickly God fills the gaps with something or someone better.
I am genuinely grateful to God for leading me and guiding me day by day. I no longer need to settle for less because I know I can have much more. All I need to do is trust.
This article was inspired by Diana C’s prompts this week, taken from her Sparks of Gratitude Series. In this piece, I have focused on how I discovered genuine gratitude in my life.
“The purpose of these type of questions is to encourage you to recognize & celebrate your big and small wins, as well as everything in between — that includes the people in your life and the experiences you attract.”
— Diana C.
