Someone said to me once that gratitude was like having windows in a room. When I questioned this, he explained that if you are in a room with no windows you are not aware of the beauty of the scenery beyond the walls, but if you have windows you can experience the pleasure of the view. He said gratitude is the quality of thought that makes you aware of the good that already surrounds you. There is always good. Taking time to appreciate it and say, ‘Thank you’ enriches our lives.
Research suggests thatbeing grateful and expressing gratitude towards others can improve our happiness and quality of life. Gratitude enhances empathy, improves physical health, mental wellbeing, quality of sleep, self-esteem and, also has the capacity to reduce stress. Identifying what you’re grateful for, especially during challenging times, can help foster resilience and improve our wellbeing (Stronger Together – Expressing Gratitude, Tanya O’Shea, Managing Director, IMPACT Community Services).
Gratitude is a quality of Love. Love is that quality that makes the world work right. When we make time for giving gratitude for the large and small things in our lives, then we are doing our part in making the world a better place while enhancing our own lives. That simple act of saying, ‘Thank you’ and counting our blessings enriches.
Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.
If you are in Canberra, please join us in giving thanks for the good in our lives and the blessings received at our Thanksgiving Service at 6.15 on Thursdsay 23 November – corner of Macquarie & Bligh Streets, Barton.
In light of the brutal attack on Israel and its punishing response, many are seeking comfort in prayer. More than anyone, those still anxiously waiting for news about their loved ones’ safety and whereabouts, and those grieving their loss, need to feel God’s loving presence and almighty protection.
I thought of a Jewish family that my tour group crossed paths with several months ago in Israel. The family had fled from their home to escape sporadic rocket fire and was unsure if their home would still be there when they returned. I wondered, too, about a Palestinian friend who had essentially been stateless his whole life. All were gentle, peaceful individuals caught up in a cycle of fear, misunderstanding, and hatred. Were they safe?
During grievous times, prayers may sometimes seem futile and words hollow. But there are beautiful promises in the Bible that unburden the heavy heart and wing it with hope. For instance, in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “For thus saith the Lord…. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” (66:12, 13).
And in Psalms: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me” (139:7–11).
What could be more comforting than to feel in the deepest recesses of our heart that not a single one of God’s children can be separated from Her love and saving power? … Continue reading …
… the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra was recently interviewed for a Sentinel Watch podcast titled Listening to God.Click here to listen to this podcasts.
How do you listen to God? And what can you expect to hear when you do? This week’s guest shares ideas from her own journey of learning how to listen—and the healings that have resulted.
When trauma seems to have so many lives in its grip, how can we respond in a way that heals, both individually and collectively? Kate walks us through her own healings of trauma to show what Christian Science makes possible.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra shared his thoughts on how Christian Science helps him:
Recently I have found myself being very busy trying to achieve the many goals I have set myself. These tasks seemed important and usually came with deadlines. In doing this I have realised that I have let go of my usual focus on spiritual development. As a Christian Scientist there is a commitment to the daily prayer (Church Manual p41):
Thy kingdom come
Let the reign of divine Truth, Life and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin
And may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind
And govern them
I found that I had almost just been saying the words to the daily prayer, for example, without really having a full commitment to it. I had been studying the Daily Bible Lesson but not with the same degree of commitment or focus as a result of this busy work. I had foregone the focus and commitment to developing spiritually and instead had been focusing on getting this busy work done. The busy work itself had taken over my attention.
Even the busy work – those little goals – weren’t being achieved with the same degree of freedom, the same degree of perfection, I had previously been able to achieve. When I had taken a more spiritual or a more focused attention to the spiritual side of my life there didn’t appear to be such a focus on busy work or human activity, and the busy work didn’t seem so difficult.
In my commitment to Christian Science there is the understanding it is more than just the Daily Prayer or doing the Daily Bible Lesson. It is a commitment to a way of living and that way of living has an impact on what happens. In her textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes (p423):
The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the truth of being, to destroy the error. This corrective is an alterative, reaching to every part of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches “the joints and marrow,” and it restores the harmony of man.
The inharmony on display because of the busy work had been brought about by my neglect of the spiritual recognition that all is brought about by mental causation. I had to remember to trust God to give me the order of work – He knew what was important and what needed to be done in what order. It was necessary to find that quiet mental place to pray; to silence the material senses and intrusive noises. Once again I turned to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, where Mary Baker Eddy writes (p15):
In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must “pray without ceasing.” Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice. The Master’s injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.
I shall be forever grateful for Christian Science. The study of Christian Science and application to my life has allowed me to make significant long lasting and beneficial changes to my way of thinking and living. Christian Science is to me, an applied, practical science that can be used everyday in one’s life. The application of Christian Science in this instance has allowed me to be free from the constraints of ‘busyness’ and to be much more productive both materially and spiritually.
Christian Science Canberra 