Life of the Beloved

I am currently reading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nowen. Oh this book has been good for my soul. It has been challenging and uplifting. There is a part in this book that I want to share with you about gratitude. Henri Nowen writes,

" We are God's chosen ones, even when our world does not choose us. You have to celebrate your chosennes constantly. This means saying 'thank you' to God for having chosen you, and 'thank you' to all who remind you of your chosenness. Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are not an 'accident,' but a divine choice. It is important to realize how often we have had chances to be grateful and have not used them. When someone is kind to us, when an event turns out well, when a problem is solved, a relationship restored, a wound healed, there are very concrete reasons to offer thanks: be it with words, with flowers, with a letter, a card, a phone call, or just a gesture of affection. However, precisely the same situations also offer us occasions to be critical, skeptical, even cynical because, when someone is kind to us, we can question his or her motives; when an event turns out well, it could always have turned out better; when a problem is solved, there often emerges another it its place; when a relationship is restored, there is always the question: 'For how long?'; when a wound is healed, there can be some leftover pain.... Where there is reason for gratitude, there can always be found a reason for bitterness. It is here that we are faced with the freedom to make a decision. WE decide to be grateful or bitter....when we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant"

I was convicted as I read this part of the book. How often do I choose bitterness over gratitude? How often do I miss out on giving thanks to God, because I have bitterness in my heart? What are you going to choose today? Let it be gratitude. Let your gratitude be a celebration of who God made you. Let your gratitude be a celebration of your chosenness.