Thankful Thursday

In the spirit of all the "30 days of thankfulness" posts I see on Facebook/Twitter and the fact that Thanksgiving is two weeks from today (crazy, yes I know), today we're talking about gratitude and thankfulness. All throughout scripture we find people giving thanks to God and for his many gifts. Psalm 100 is all about giving thanks, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." But just in case you need some more motivation to be grateful here's one interesting study.

In 2003 Emmons and McCullough conducted a study where college students were randomly placed into one of three conditions, (gratitude, hassles, or events), each of which lasted for nine weeks. Participants were given weekly packets in which they were to write down different things depending on their condition. In the gratitude condition, students were asked to write down several experiences for which they were grateful. In the hassles condition, students wrote down annoyances they experienced in the previous week. Finally, in the events condition, students wrote down a number of events that affected them in the past week. Students also completed a series of measures assessing physical symptoms and overall well-being. Students in the grateful condition reported significantly greater life satisfaction, greater optimism for the upcoming week, fewer physical symptoms, and, perhaps most surprisingly, exercised significantly more than students in either the events condition or the hassles condition. (taken from http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org)

So what are you waiting for, what are you thankful for? Leave a comment!