An Attitude of Gratitude

“A gracious wife brings glory to her husband.” Proverbs 11:16

The topic for the dinner event was grateful. I would’ve preferred to speak on fear, since we seemed to have an intimate relationship. Gratitude, however, was honestly something I focused on in November or when I struggled with my thoughts and intentionally expressed my thanks to God during my prayer time. I really didn’t know what I could talk about that people didn’t already know. What story did I have that they could relate to about being grateful that they hadn’t heard a million times already? As I began to prepare my talk, I thought it was a good idea to decipher the difference between gratitude and thankfulness. Guess what? The Greek work “eucharistos” is the same for both, thus clarifying for me the difference-There is none!

That was good news since I wanted to use a lesser-known Bible verse about being thankful for my talk. One that people would hear or read and say, “Oh, I never thought of it that way!” So, it was exciting for me (and, I’ll admit, a little hard to swallow) when I found that the word “eucharistos” as an adjective mean gracious or agreeable. “A gracious wife brings glory to her husband.” In other words, a thankful wife brings glory to her husband. As Joyce Meyer would say, “ouch, hallelujah!”

You see, this month I’ve been trying to focus on ways to express my gratitude to others, and wouldn’t you know, last week God showed me I had been forgetting about my family. Why is it that often times the people we’re closest to are the ones privileged enough to get all our leftovers? So, I found it funny (ha, ha, God) that the verse He led me to was one about our family.

Does It Matter What We Think? I want you to think for a second about how this verse is worded. A gracious or thankful wife. What would come to your mind if I asked you to describe a nagging wife? I’m sure it wouldn’t take you long. That person is known as a nag because of a repetitive behavior that has come to define them. A thankful wife is not a wife who expresses her gratitude once in a while, but who has developed this as a character trait of hers. Purposefully. Intentionally. How can we do this? By thinking about what we’re thinking about. Make it a habit to express gratitude to our family members.

Are you single? Or perhaps you’re a husband, and therefore you think this doesn’t apply to you. Don’t worry, you’re in luck! The Bible tells us that Jesus is our bridegroom and we, the church, are His bride. The comedian and TV star Tim Allen recently said women might say they want to be happy, yet we always find something to complain about. I’ll admit, I was one of those women in the audience who initially laughed but then was struck after the fact that, wow, he’s right. That is true – at least for me. Since we often find something to complain about, let’s think how happy we’d be if instead of focusing on the negative we focused on the many things we are thankful for. Life would be great! Are you living in a way that brings glory to Jesus by being a thankful “wife”?