Attitude of Gratitude

By Karen Bonasso

When I was 24 Years old I took my 10-month old baby and flew across the country to meet my husband in downtown Los Angeles, CA. That was to be our home. I had never been there before. When we landed, my husband drove us from the airport to a two-bedroom apartment downtown where the three of us, two young women, and one young man were to live.  There were bars on the windows and locks on every door in the building even in the hallways.  I couldn’t see green grass or blue ocean anywhere! We had very little money and no credit cards so we used a styrofoam cool as a “fridge” and paid our rent a half month at a time. To say that I was happy to have the opportunity to serve God would be an understatement; but I would have been much more comfortable in the middle of the countryside than in the middle of a city.

That was just the start of the adventure which was to be my life.

Adventures are exciting but they are often filled with big obstacles and even bigger setbacks.  So I learned a “secret” from God on the front end of this journey that has carried me for four decades.  It was this: always have an attitude of gratitude.

There is always, no matter the crisis, no matter the suffering…even through tears and heartache…there is always a reason to be found, as the Bible says, to offer up “thanksgiving to God”.

An attitude of gratitude helps you see the precious and fight for it.  It keeps your thoughts from despair and bitterness.  It lifts you up to a place of hope, which the Bible calls the “anchor of the soul”.  It is how you “watch over your heart with all diligence” so that life can flow from your heart and become “springs of life” for those around you. 

I haven’t been perfect in it, but I’ve always been determined to pick myself up and get back in the attitude of gratitude.  Why?  Because I love my God, my family, His people, and I love my God-given adventure too much!

Background Photo by Birgith Roosipuu via Unsplash