Choosing Gratitude

Gratitude is a choice. If we fail to chose it, by default we choose ingratitude. And once allowed into the heart, ingratitude does not come by itself but with a lot of other seedy companions that only succeed in stealing joy. To not choose gratitude - daily and deliberately - is more costly than we usually realize. And when we do choose a lifestyle of heartfelt, humble gratitude, we are mindful of the benefits received from our gracious Savior and those He has placed around us. By intentionally thanking God and others, bitterness and entitlement are replaced with joy and the humble realization of just how undeserving we really are. Derived from a popular Revive Our Hearts radio series, Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy challenges and equips the reader to live a life of intention. A life based on thankfulness - for the freedom Christ has provided and for the blessings of others. As a bonus, a 30-day plan of journaling, prayer and activities to help the reader on her path to joy is included.

Derived from a popular Revive Our Hearts radio series, "Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy" challenges and equips the reader to live a life of intention. As a bonus, a 30-day plan of journaling, prayer, and activities is included.

Derived from a popular Revive Our Hearts radio series, "Choosing Gratitude: The Path to Joy" challenges and equips the reader to live a life of intention--a life based on thankfulness and for the freedom Christ has provided and for the blessings of others.

"In a society consumed by fears of not having "enough" -- money, possessions, security, etc. --Autry suggests that if we cultivate gratitude as a way of being, we may not change the world and its ills, but we can change our response to the world. If we fill lour lives with moments of gratitude, we will indeed love the life we have." -- publisher.

'No one tells a story better than Ellen Vaughn' ---Chuck Colson Why read a nice book about gratitude? After all, being thankful is not controversial. Everyone agrees that gratitude is a good thing. Nor is it rocket science. It is simple. But radical gratitude is also powerful, provocative, life-changing. It's like a pair of glasses that get progressively sharper: the more we thank, the more we see to be thankful for. Gratitude is the lens that reveals God's incredible grace at work. It is the key to tangible, everyday joy. True to Ellen Vaughn's signature style, this book overflows with unforgettable, surprising stories that show gratitude's transforming power. It is fun, slightly quirky, deep . . . and immensely refreshing.

Relax and enjoy a creative approach to gratitude with this beautiful coloring book for adults filled with breathtaking illustrations and inspirational quotes from writers, hymns, and Scripture. In today's hectic, stress-filled world, taking stock of our blessings and truly experiencing gratefulness isn't always easy, but this coloring book offers a beautiful and unique way to find moments of peace and quiet to meditate on gratitude. Each beautifully illustrated page features an original design from one of seven talented artists that illustrates a corresponding quote. Features include: - Large format 9.75" x 9.75" (25x25cm) pages - 45 single-sided coloring pages - High quality, bright white paper stock--heavy enough to use pencils, pens, or markers - Quotes from the Bible, hymns, and variety of inspirational writers, such as Charles Stanley, Henry Ward Beecher, Maya Angelou, Louisa May Alcott, Martin Luther King Jr., Shauna Niequist, Bob Goff, G.K. Chesterton, Mr. Rogers, and more - A link to the "Gratefulness" playlist to help set the mood for worship, contemplation, creative expression, and a spirit of gratitude - Illustrations by Holly Camp, Jennifer Tucker, Ann-Margret Hovsepian, Katie Howe, Laura Marshall, Bridget Hurley, and Radha Carlson--all artists previously featured in the bestselling Whatever Is Lovely and Everything Beautiful This coloring book will take you on a journey towards deeper gratitude. Whether you are embarking on this journey by yourself or in a group, pick up your favorite art supplies and color your way to a new understanding of what it means to be truly grateful.

“In order to learn what it means to be a woman, we must start with the One who made her.” Working from Scripture, well-known speaker and author Elisabeth Elliot shares her observations and experiences in a number of essays on what it means to be a Christian woman, whether single, married, or widowed. Available in trade softcover and as a Living Book.

Scripture says that offenses will happen. People will let us down and we will let others down, as well. Forgiveness is left up to us to pray about and then practice. Far from minimizing the hurt of the offense, readers are called to understand that offering forgiveness and letting go of bitterness is the only way to walk in faithfulness. Drawing on biblical teaching of our call to forgive, Nancy shows the reader that forgiveness is a choice- and the only pathway to true freedom.

The Wilbur Award-winning book Grateful is now available in paperback and with an updated subtitle. If gratitude is good, why is it so hard to do? In Grateful, Diana Butler Bass untangles our conflicting understandings of gratitude and sets the table for a renewed practice of giving thanks. We know that gratitude is good, but many of us find it hard to sustain a meaningful life of gratefulness. Four out of five Americans report feeling gratitude on a regular basis, but those private feelings seem disconnected from larger concerns of our public lives. In Grateful, cultural observer and theologian Diana Butler Bass takes on this “gratitude gap” and offers up surprising, relevant, and powerful insights to practice gratitude. Bass, author of the award-winning Grounded and ten other books on spirituality and culture, explores the transformative, subversive power of gratitude for our personal lives and in communities. Using her trademark blend of historical research, spiritual insights, and timely cultural observation, she shows how we can overcome this gap and make change in our own lives and in the world. With honest stories and heartrending examples from history and her own life, Bass reclaims gratitude as a path to greater connection with god, with others, with the world, and even with our own souls. It’s time to embrace a more radical practice of gratitude—the virtue that heals us and helps us thrive.

Winner of the 2018 Christian Book Award® (Bible Study Category) Known for her wisdom, warmth, and knowledge of Scripture, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has encouraged millions through her books, radio programs, and conferences. Now she’s back with a legacy work on Titus 2 and its powerful vision for women: Woman to woman. Older to younger. Day to day. Life to life. This is God’s beautiful plan. The Titus 2 model of older women living out the gospel alongside younger women is vital for us all to thrive. It is mutually strengthening, glorifies God, and makes His truth believable to our world. Imagine older women investing themselves in the lives of younger women, blessing whole families and churches. Imagine young wives, moms, and singles gaining wisdom and encouragement from women who’ve been there and have found God’s ways to be true and good. Imagine all women—from older women to young girls—living out His transforming gospel together, growing the entire body of Christ to be more beautiful. This is Christian community as God designed it. Read this book and take your relationships to new depths, that your life might find its fullest meaning as you adorn the gospel of Christ.

Gratitude, like other positive emotions, has inspired many theological and philosophical writings, but it has inspired very little vigorous, empirical research. In an effort to remedy this oversight, this volume brings together prominent scientists from various disciplines to examine what has become known as the most-neglected emotion. The volume begins with the historical, philosophical, and theoretical foundations of gratitude, then presents the current research perspectives from social, personality, and developmental psychology, as well as from primatology, anthropology, and biology. The volume also includes a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of research on gratitude. This work contributes a great deal to the growing positive psychology initiative and to the scientific investigation of positive human emotions. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers and students in social, personality, and developmental, clinical, and health psychology, as well as to sociologists and cultural anthropologists.

A purposeful guide for cultivating gratitude as a way of life explores evidence-based practices while providing step-by-step advice for practicing gratitude in accordance with religious, philosophical and spiritual traditions that support scientific principles. By the best-selling author of Thanks.

Is there a secret to success? Business consultant Danelle Delgado would say yes, but she would add that each of us has a slightly different formula for a happy, productive life. She offers a practice used by many of the world's most successful people-an uncomplicated system for fostering joy, creativity, and transformation. That system is gratitude practice, and it changed Delgado's own life. Deceptively simple, gratitude practice asks you to take three small but vital steps every day: Record your gratitude for ten things in your life. Write down three goals. Commit to personal and professional growth. Performed consistently, these three steps will transform your beliefs, your attitudes, and your thinking. You'll create a habit shared by some of the world's wealthiest, most creative, and most successful individuals. I Choose Joy provides you with the space you need to record your gratitude and goals every day. Designed to make the process as easy as possible, each page offers you both the structure and space you need to develop a daily gratitude habit. Delgado offers you a road map to success, but she leaves the destination to you. All you have to do is start.

A proponent of the field of positive psychology offers a close-up study of the positive influence on people's lives of the systematic cultivation of gratitude, explaining how the practice of grateful thinking can increase one's chances for happiness and help one cope more effectively with stress, recover more quickly from illness, enjoy better physical health, improve relationships, and other benefits.

This poetry anthology, edited by Miranda Paul, explores a wide range of ways to be grateful (from gratitude for a puppy to gratitude for family to gratitude for the sky) with poems by a diverse group of contributors, including Joseph Bruchac, Margarita Engle, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Naomi Shihab Nye, Charles Waters, and Jane Yolen.

Paul Williams is an alcoholic. Tracey Jackson is not. But together, these two close friends have written Gratitude and Trust, a book designed to apply the principles of the recovery movement to the countless people who are not addicts but nevertheless need effective help with their difficulties and pain. Williams, the award-winning songwriter, actor, and performer, has embraced a traditional alcoholism recovery plan for more than two decades of sobriety. Jackson, a well-known TV and film writer—and veteran of many years of traditional therapy—has never been a drunk or a drug abuser, but she realized that many of the tenets of Williams’s program could apply to her. In Gratitude and Trust, Williams and Jackson ask: What happens to those who struggle with vexing problems yet are not full-blown addicts? Are there any lessons to be learned from the foundational and time-tested principles of the recovery movement? Whether you’re tethered to your phone or you turn to food for comfort; whether you’re a perfectionist and can’t let things go or are too afraid to fail to even try; whether you can find intimacy only on the Internet or you’ve been involved in a string of nasty relationships—the first step toward feeling better about yourself and your life is the realization that you are what’s standing in your way. Williams and Jackson have designed a new, positive program, based on a half-dozen new affirmations, that can help conquer your vices, address personal dysfunction, and start to brighten the darkest moods. Gratitude and Trust is an essential, inspirational, and uplifting guide to identifying and changing maladaptive behaviors in order to uncover your most productive, healthiest self.

" ✤The Gratitude Journal has many benefits; through this daily practice, you'll better understand your emotions and thoughts, relate to events in your waking life, reveal patterns, and potentially improve your memory.The main characteristics: ✤High-quality paper. ✤Great Size: 6x9 inches and 110 pages. ✤Each page features space to write down your reflections on scripture and record your thoughts in life. "

Discover the Positive Power of Gratitude Living as if each day is a thank you can help transform fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, and isolation into belonging. Authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons present a simple yet comprehensive approach for incorporating gratitude into one's life and reaping its many benefits. The book is divided into ten chapters, including ''Ways to Stay Thankful in Difficult Times,''.....''Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice,'' and ''Putting Gratitude into Action.'' Each chapter includes stories of individuals whose lives have been transformed by thankfulness, motivational quotes and blessings, and suggested gratitude practices. Whatever is given - even a challenging moment - is a gift. With this book, you will be able to feel more connected to the flow of life and less alone in your struggles and fears.

An inspiring, practical guide to release the fears that are holding you back and achieve your ideal life. Everyone experiences fear in life--fear of failure, fear of ridicule, fear of the unknown. These fears hold us back from living our truth and achieving our full potential. They prevent us from growing and moving forward after a minor setback or major disappointment. But if we can transform those fears, anything is possible. We can connect with our authentic self, listen to our soul's desires, and start living our dreams. In this book, celebrity holistic health coach and yoga instructor Koya Webb shares the ways she has lived in fear and the tools she's used to get herself to a more confident and fierce place, moving through life in alignment with everything she believes in. Koya's own personal story of triumph over a career-halting injury, depression, self-sabotage, and other limiting beliefs will inspire readers to meet their challenges head on, and transform their greatest fears and obstacles into positive energy that can launch them forward. If you are tired of feeling overwhelmed, unappreciated, and burned out, this is the book for you. Using breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, journaling, mantras, prayer, and more, Koya shows how you can shift from fear-based living to fierce living! No matter who you are, or where you are at, or what you have been through, these are universal tools that help every human being get un-stuck and be able to live the most fulfilling life possible!

The idea was deceptively simple: New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. The resulting journey takes him across the globe, transforms his life, and reveals secrets about how gratitude can make us all happier, more generous, and more connected. Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee—and every other item in our lives—would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers, and goatherds. By thanking these people face to face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs—his disposition is more Larry David than Tom Hanks—but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion: It improves compassion, heals your body, and helps battle depression. Jacobs gleans wisdom from vivid characters all over the globe, including the Minnesota miners who extract the iron that makes the steel used in coffee roasters, to the Madison Avenue marketers who captured his wandering attention for a moment, to the farmers in Colombia. Along the way, Jacobs provides wonderful insights and useful tips, from how to focus on the hundreds of things that go right every day instead of the few that go wrong. And how our culture overemphasizes the individual over the team. And how to practice the art of “savoring meditation” and fall asleep at night. Thanks a Thousand is a reminder of the amazing interconnectedness of our world. It shows us how much we take for granted. It teaches us how gratitude can make our lives happier, kinder, and more impactful. And it will inspire us to follow our own “Gratitude Trails.”