When I sat down to organize my thoughts about this topic, I quickly came to understand the meaning of gratitude in action for me personally.
For me so much about living is spiritual. This is rooted in my belief that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience and everything in life was designed for our development and growth. So, it was natural for me to automatically deliberate gratitude in action on spiritual terms. This thoughtfulness led me to ways I might extend gratitude heavenward for the blessing of my Savior’s atonement. As most deliberations go, I was taken on a journey of mindfulness….
I was reminded that when I put intentional attention on how I show up in community, I also extend heavenward those actions associated with such intention. Meaning, what I do unto others I do also to the Lord (Matt 25:40). There is, quite literally, an extensive list of how to appropriately treat or serve others. However, my spirit focused my mind on one – lovingly act, react, and respond to others. Upon dissection of this enlightened notion, space for further clarity was opened and I discovered there is so much more rooted in how we react or respond to others.
It’s easy to take what is on the surface of how we act toward others, or how we react and respond to them in various situations and conclude this isn’t rocket science type thinking. It’s easy to fall back on this concept not being new news to us. We’ve heard about the golden rule our entire lives. But have we ever stopped to genuinely evaluate why it’s the golden rule; why it’s THE ultimate road map for how to show up?
When we show up lovingly, we exercise
our ability to see another’s humanity. We exhibit serving hands and a ministering heart. We more readily and fully extend charity and grace. Overall, the golden rule is rooted in gratitude. Think about that. How can we know that treating others the way we want to be treated is golden if we don’t first appreciate being treated well? We know the opposite and, therefore, can fully appreciate the truth of the golden rule. Opposition is a natural law – but that’s a post for another day.
I have pondered, at length, the idea of loving action, loving reaction, and loving response. I was first compelled to contemplate the subject after attending a personal development class several years ago. The Spirit spoke truth to my heart when I heard the facilitator, Kathy Minor, talk about turning to gratitude in moments of disagreement. She used the example of when we’re faced with someone who is argumentative or offensive. In that moment we can choose to lovingly react and respond by moving to gratitude which, she said, might sound something like, “God, I’m grateful in this moment to experience what true frustration feels like; thank you for giving me the opportunity to be tried today.” Obviously, this is much easier to say than execute. Believe me, I’ve tried it many times. However, the facilitator explained - and I’ve come to know this to be true - that when we move to gratitude, we are more capable. This result is because gratitude is a love-based state of mind, which is a higher level of consciousness than that of a fear-based state, like frustration.
Of this level of consciousness the facilitator quoted Dieter F. Uchtdorf who said, “Gratitude…broadens our perceptions and clears our vision. It inspires humility and fosters empathy toward our fellowmen and all of God’s creation. [It] is the catalyst to all Christlike attributes!” Truly, grateful living is important. When our perceptions are expanded, and our vision is clear, a heightened receptivity to the Spirit emerges. Inspired humility and empathy provide us with more ability to meet others where they are – as Christ would – and to provide them with a safe space to share their vulnerability and be seen, or tenderly held, in their suffering. Essentially, gratitude in action (aka the golden rule) effects great change.
To emphasize such a concept the facilitator paraphrased David O. McKay, an American religious leader and educator, who put it something like this: “There is one responsibility that no man can evade…personal influence. The effect of your words and acts is tremendous in this world. Every moment of life you are changing, to a degree, the li[ves] of the whole world. Every[one] has an atmosphere or radiation that is affecting every [other] person in the world.”
Here is my translation: When I choose to show up in relationship or community in any other way than the ME God created me to be, there is a giant N-A-T-A-L-I-E shaped hole in the universe and every human being suffers. Conversely, then, when I discover who He wants me to be - and actively live as such, following the path of gratitude in action - every human being is blessed, thus creating a domino effect of change as another is impacted who, in turn, impacts another, and so on, until the whole of the world has been changed.
We each possess THAT kind of power, both positive and negative in influence, by simply lovingly acting, reacting, or responding. It's a tall order, indeed, to live up to the amount of responsibility this poses on each one of us. The reality of it dictates the mighty power of one; it simply takes a single individual to effect profound change. Imagine, then, a world wherein even a handful of people understood the gravity of gratitude in action and desired to be a force for good, a beacon of light, each day. We can all be the change we want to see in the world.
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