4 Ways to Grow A Grateful Heart

It’s that time of year. We know how the season is supposed to go down. Besides pumpkin pie and turkey, we’re encouraged to …

Count our blessings.

Be thankful.

Express our gratefulness.

Show our generosity.

And maybe we do and are these things during Thanksgiving. Perhaps some of us manage to pull it off most of the year.

But when we look at this list with attitudes of gratitude, do we think of our husband? The truth is, sometimes I’m grateful and generous to others, but not to my husband.

A few years ago as I was reflecting on gratitude, God spoke to my heart.

Grateful people are generous people. Generous people are grateful people.

Grateful wives are generous wives. Generous wives are grateful wives.

So, how can we as wives have attitudes of gratitude toward our husband?

It starts in our heart. Since God created marriage and positioned us as wives, then He helps us become wives with a grateful and generous heart. Let’s go back to our list.

Count our blessings. The Lord provides our basic physical and spiritual needs. And the Lord provided a soulmate and partner in life. Let’s count our husband as one of our top blessings.  Let’s tell him often how he’s a blessing. Just simply say, “I’m blessed by you.” Or, “You bless me.”

Be thankful. Psalm 100 exclaims to be thankful to the Lord, “enter his gates with thanksgiving” (verse 4). We’re thankful for God’s goodness and mercy in our lives and so much more. Why not thank God for our husband? Thanksgiving often changes our perspective. So when our marriage is going great or it’s strained, thank God not only for our marriage but also for the husband we live with, lie down in bed beside at night, and do life with.

Express our gratefulness.  Just the other day, I told a friend I was grateful for her friendship. Yet, when was the last time I expressed those same sentiments to my husband? And he’s my best friend! “I’m grateful for your love and care and friendship.”

Show our generosity. Let’s ask ourselves if we are generous with our time, service, love, affection, spiritual gifts, and so on with our husband as much as with others.

Wife Step: Focus on attitudes of gratitude toward your husband. Reflect on and do each of the four things on the list each week until it becomes a habit and changes your perspective.

Karen Friday is a pastor’s wife and women’s ministry leader. As an award-winning writer and avid speaker, she loves words and God’s Word. For over a decade, she has balanced the busy life of church ministry with working from her home office in marketing where she is frequently referred to as Girl Friday. A blogger, Karen “Girl” Friday engages a community every week, Hope is Among Us. She has published a number of articles and devotions in both print and online media, and is currently working on her first book. Karen’s writing connects family life experiences, Christian ministry, and real life scenarios as women to the timeless truths of Scripture. Vulnerable about her own marriage journey, Karen knows life never gets more real than as a wife. Karen and her husband Mike have two grown children and a grandson. The entire family is fond of the expression, “TGIF: Thank God it’s Friday.” They owe Monday an apology.

Visit her blog at KarenGirlFriday.com