As
members of this holy order we all surely realize that our attitude at all times
is an important factor in our success. And being thankful is a virtue which we
are told in Scripture to have as Christians.
The
universal cliché, ‘attitude of gratitude’ is an admonition to think positive
and be grateful for all one has. These two words have been used in relation to
one another for hundreds of years, but the earliest citation known of them in a
very similar connection is from Historical
Sketches of the Ten Miles Square Forming the District of Columbia by
Jonathan Elliott, 1830, on page 116 under ‘Landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth
Rock,’ in regard to the carving over the door leading to the Eastern Portico on
the Capitol Rotundo:
“Behind, in the boat, looking towards heaven, with an eye and attitude of devotional gratitude, for deliverance
from the sufferings and hardships of the voyage, stands his wife…”
In
The Science of Getting Rich, 1910, by
Wallace D. Wattles, page 29, he wrote what may be the earliest exact citation
of the current saying:
“The more gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when
good things come to us, the more good things we will receive, and the more
rapidly they will come; and the reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch
with the source.”
We know that the true
source of all good is God. May He give you an attitude of gratitude at all
times.