Idea Addicts

Active Gratefulness

An acquaintance and I were talking about our Thanksgivings yesterday. The conversation went deep quickly.

He talked about having multiple families at his house for the holidays. Around the Thanksgiving table, they began to talk about what they were thankful for. My friend encouraged the table to move beyond “passive gratefulness,” the obvious things we are thankful for (a beautiful sky, a nice day), to push into “active gratefulness,” where you have to work a little harder.

He explained to me that “active gratefulness” includes seeing the good even in bad times. It requires work on our part to see these things. We talked about how it is interesting that two people can have very similar experiences, and one is able to be actively grateful while the other cannot.

What are your thoughts on this? Is active gratefulness important? Can one choose to be actively grateful? How? Please share in the comments section or on social media. Thanks!

Hey, I’m Adam Suter. This is my personal blog. I am married to the love of my life, Michelle, and have three wonderful children. We live in Marietta, GA. I run a small nonprofit. Some of the things that fascinate me are faith, new ideas, people, stories, productivity, nonprofits, and my own children.

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