I was exhausted to the bone.

In 2010-2011, I worked three jobs, often leaving my Starbucks store around midnight on Friday and Saturday only to arrive at my church by 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

A couple of years earlier, my wife and I had gotten married with a total of $225,000 in debt.

In 2009, we paid off our first credit card.

In 2010, I took on a second and a third job to pay off the rest of our credit card debt.

My battle during that season wasn’t just a physical one, but a mental and spiritual one, too!

I graduated from seminary and got ordained as a pastor. Yet, I was standing behind the counter at Starbucks, being trained for a new job. Multiple times, my trainer had to call me out for not respecting his leadership and submitting to his training. Late one night, I discovered someone had pooped outside our store and tracked it all the way to the bathroom. It fell to me to clean up this mess.

I hit a breaking point that night.

With God. My health. My sanity.

I was DESPERATE.

Earlier that week, I started reading a book by Tim Sanders. In the book, he shared the life lessons he learned from his grandmother. One of those lessons was about his gratitude muscle. His grandmother taught him that gratitude wasn’t a feeling or a seasonal activity.

She talked about how the Bible teaches us to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Tim learned that gratitude was like any other muscle. Our gratitude muscles grow with exercise and continued use. Gratitude became easier the more consistently he practiced it.

“What do I have to lose?!”

So, I began to do something that felt utterly ridiculous and counterintuitive. I started making a list of what I was grateful for each day. Following Tim’s direction, I identified three things I was thankful for daily. Some days, the list was “falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up feeling better the next morning.” On other days, my list included “no poop to clean up, no angry customers, and being able to share a meal with Danalyn.”

Slowly but surely, God changed my heart. My humility increased, and my pride decreased. God gave me opportunities to encourage my coworkers at Starbucks, and a few of them even decided to hear me preach at my church without me inviting them. None of this was an overnight change. It took TONS of work.

But as I made my list each day and genuinely thanked God for His provision in my life…I GAINED A NEW ATTITUDE. Gratitude didn’t change my circumstances, but my perspective in the middle of them did.

Gratitude changed me.

I started trusting God in new ways, and I began losing weight. My time with my wife became sweeter, and we connected more deeply. We paid off all of our credit card debt, over $20,000+ in less than two years. I started to see a brighter future, and God brought my joy back into my life. Eventually, the multiple-job era ended, and I began a full-time pastoral position at my church.

A couple of years later, I started sharing my gratitude story, which led others to make their own lists, too. Several years after that, I did a sermon series on gratitude at my church. A year ago, I published The Gratitude Muscle devotional on YouVersion, a 5-day challenge that 10,000 people have completed.

Here’s what I learned through all of that. You don’t have to be working three jobs or mopping up poop for God to change your heart. But you can learn how to give thanks in all circumstances! Whether or not you lift weights in a gym, you can learn how to exercise your gratitude muscle.

We Need More Than A Day of Gratitude

Throughout November, gratitude and thankfulness will receive more attention. That’s a good thing!

But, as quickly as Thanksgiving comes in the United States, it will be gone. It feels like Thanksgiving is just a slight interruption to the crazy Christmas season. So, if you want to resist the pull of greed and the empty promise of happiness that modern marketing provides, you need a daily practice, not just a seasonal activity.

If you’re ready to get some help in this area, there are two places you can start today!

1) Check out my plan on YouVersion today. Angela started the plan and began practicing gratitude. She wrote me a few weeks later. “Since I started building my gratitude muscles, I have been more joyful than ever!!! I’m even almost off my antidepressants.” A man named Todd wrote me recently. He’s building his gratitude muscle as he battles ALS. I hope the plan encourages you as it has them!

2) Start making your gratitude list. Every day, for the next three weeks, complete the following sentence: “God, thank you for ____________, ____________________, and ____________________.” Keep the list in a journal, a note on your phone, or somewhere else where you can see it build over time. It’s okay to repeat things in your list along the way! Watch what happens when you start building that gratitude muscle. (If you need help with making this list, check out my 21 Day Gratitude Challenge.) 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul described three things as “God’s will for your life.” Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. God called us to do these three things every day. Paul knew that consistency makes a much bigger impact than intensity when it comes to our pursuit of growth and change.

One little habit (writing down three things I’m thankful to God for) changed my life. I’m praying it changes yours, too.

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