As a parent it’s not uncommon to have to correct a child when you witness them make expressions of ingratitude. For example, your child might not want to eat dinner because he or she doesn’t like the taste, they may feel a sense of injustice that they didn’t get a certain toy they wanted. Perhaps they are expressing frustration because they didn’t get to watch television and have to go to bed. If you’re anything like me, you often approach these situations in a way to get your child to realize where their little grievance sits in the wider scope of life. You try to reason with your children to see that they should be grateful. Ok you don’t like the meal, but what about the children around the world that are going without food? Perhaps that’s not the toy you wanted but I’m sure there’s someone out there who would appreciate that their parents even thought about them. Maybe you didn’t get to watch the show you wanted to but have you thought about the kids out there who don’t have any shelter to sleep under, a warm bed or family? Parenting seems to be a constant battle of shifting a child’s perspective from their own self-interested issues to one of gratitude for the blessings they have each and every day.

When you think about that, parenting is in fact a reflection of the relationship between us and God. God seems to be giving us adults and me especially, the same parenting lessons over and over. Like our children, we as adults seem to get caught up in life’s cares, perplexities and trials and oftentimes we react selfishly and focus on our trials as though they are a cross too hard to bear. It’s off course easier to speak about changing your perspective in the midst of trouble but as we all know its not always easily done and yet time and again we have also all experienced the pain of not doing so.

Luke 12:25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

Jesus asks his disciples a simple question which didn’t need an answer because experience made it self evident and it is as ever relevant today for us. Who among you can add anything to your life by worry and anxiety? By constantly focusing on what is lacking in your life rather then what you have been blessed with.

Suppose you try to count all your blessings. You have thought so little upon them, and they have been so continual, that when reverses or afflictions come, you are grieved, and think God is unjust. You do not call to mind how little gratitude you have manifested for all the blessings of I God. You have not deserved them; but because they have flowed in upon you day by day, year by year, you have looked upon them as a matter of course, thinking it was your right to receive every advantage, and give nothing in return…. The blessings of God are more than the hairs of our head, more than the sands of the seashore. Meditate upon His love and care for us, and may it inspire you with love that trials cannot interrupt nor afflictions quench. [50] – {SD 116.4}

If we could only see the many dangers from which we are daily preserved by the holy angels, instead of complaining of our trials and misfortunes, we would talk continually of the mercies of God. [51] – {SD 116.5}

I am sure like me this is a problem that each one of us can relate to. It’s a familiar scenario when we are brought to test and trial again and again. When we see it in our own children we think to ourselves ‘how many times do I have to correct you on this until you get it?’ How little do we recognise how many times we’ve been the one needing the correction? How patient a God we do serve, that He, despite our ingratitude continues to preserve us from harm and continually blesses us each new day.

Now we might not have God physically hovering over us, like we as parents, turning our children’s minds to thought of gratitude whenever we are being selfish but He does have his agents for bringing about a chance of perspective and they are in fact the trials that beset us.

Trial is part of the education given in the school of Christ, to purify God’s children from the dross of earthliness. It is because God is leading His children that trying experiences come to them. Trials and obstacles are His chosen methods of discipline, and His appointed conditions of success. He who reads the hearts of men knows their weaknesses better than they themselves can know them. He sees that some have qualifications which, if rightly directed, could be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these souls into different positions and varied circumstances, that they may discover the defects that are concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to overcome these defects and to fit themselves for service. Often He permits the fires of affliction to burn, that they may be purified. – {AA 524.2}

So God brings trials before us in order to mould us and cut away our selfishness. Trials of themselves do not produce in us the work God so desires because we all know everyone in this world suffers trial, Christian or not. What really makes a change in us is how we react to those trials. It’s all about perspective or as we have just read its about the opportunity to overcome our defects and our natural reaction.

The Bible gives us ample examples of Godly men and woman in the severest of trials overcome by a change of perspective, by seeing the blessing in the burden, by being appreciative of what they have rather then what they may have lost. Let us consider the story of Job, found in Job 1 (my favourite story in the Bible I must add).

The first chapter sets the scene of this man named Job who was exceedingly wealthy, exceedingly blessed. He had property, family, live stock. Everything that one could hope to possess and he possessed it in abundance. So one day Satan comes to Heaven and God asks him to consider Job who faithfully and enthusiastically praised God each and every day for His blessings. Satan says to God, well Job only worships you because you’ve given him everything, if you take it away he’ll curse you instead. So God allows Satan to take away everything from Job save his life and to see the results. Satan gets to work and whilst Job is carrying along with daily duties a messenger comes running telling him all his oxen and ass where stolen and his servants slaughtered. Before the messenger finished speaking another messenger comes running in telling Job fire has consumed all his sheep and servants. Another messenger comes running in and says all the camels have been stolen and the servants all killed. If this wasn’t bad enough a final servant comes running to Job and tells him his sons and daughters have been crushed to death after the house fell in on them. No Job could rightfully loose his mind at the moment. Can you imagine to pain to hear all these things, all at once? What a terrible situation and yet how did Job immediately react?

Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Now if that is not the ultimate perspective of gratitude I don’t know what is. Faced with such a significant loss of substance and of his children, Job placed his trial into the wider scope of life. He remembered his very life was by the grace of God, that he entered the world with nothing and would leave with nothing and so anything that he acquired in between life and death was God’s to give and God’s to take away.

How is it that Job could face such a heart-breaking trial and still think of gratitude? Because gratitude was his daily practice as should it be ours.

We should accustom the heart to dwell in a frame of gratitude and praise. The more we praise God, the more we shall have to praise him for, and our hearts will become attuned to his praise. – {RH May 28, 1889 Par. 4}

Lets consider another story, that of Joseph. Now we all know Joseph was betrayed into slavery by his brothers, that we was falsely imprisoned and that he ascended to become an advisor of the Pharaoh and ultimately reunite with his family and find a place of safety for his people. When Joseph came face to face with his brother he could have slay them, he could have made them his servants but interestingly he chose to look at his great ordeal with a different perspective.

Genesis 45: 4-5 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Rather then see his trial as a great betrayal on his brothers part he chose to look at it with the attitude of gratitude. Had it not been for him being sold into slavery he would not be able to deliver his family from the present terrible drought they were suffering. Joseph choose to see God’s grace in the midst of his suffering.

God has provided for man subjects of thought which will bring into activity every faculty of the mind. We may read the character of the Creator in the heavens above and the earth beneath, filling the heart with gratitude and thanksgiving. Every nerve and sense will respond to the expressions of God’s love in His marvelous works. – {Mar 367.2}

Its clear to see perspective provides for us an avenue to maintain peace and hold onto our faith in the most trying of circumstances. But not only so, perspective is a powerful safeguard of our physical health. Recent research in the field of positive psychology attest to the power of grateful thinking:

‘Consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall. There is scientific evidence that grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals.’

‘Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret and depression, which can destroy our happiness’

– Robert Emmons PHD University of California, author of Gratitude Works!

What science is discovering now God has been saying from ages eternal.

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Nothing tends more to promote health of body and of soul than does a spirit of gratitude and praise. It is a positive duty to resist melancholy, discontented thoughts and feelings—as much a duty as it is to pray. If we are heaven-bound, how can we go as a band of mourners, groaning and complaining all along the way to our Father’s house? – {MH 251.3}

Apart from cultivating perspective through daily praise and gratitude there is an additional and equally importance way to obtain a perspective of gratitude and that is through service.

We are all woven together in the great web of humanity, and whatever we can do to benefit and uplift others will reflect in blessing upon ourselves. – {CSA 62.8}

The joy of service and the perspective it creates in your life is not merely something you can talk about. It is something you have to experience to realise how much it can impact your life. In my former work I had the opportunity to work with asylum seekers and refugees in detention. This experience brought me in daily contact with the needs and suffering of others and was a huge eye opener to exactly how fortunate my life was and how small my problems were.

Some years ago I had to opportunity to work in Nauru, a tiny island nation in Micronesia. I had been given the responsibility of managing the welfare of asylum seekers sent there for Offshore Processing. For four months I gained a perspective on what mattered in life and how insignificant my problems were. Do you know what it is like to see a man at his most bare? To put aside all things, to strip it bare and see a person as a soul? In Nauru I certainly did. Can you imagine speaking encouragement to a man who had just tried to hang himself because he might never see his family again. Can you imagine holding the hand of a man as he rocked to and fro, tears streaming and fearful that at any moment someone may burst into his hospital room and beat him up? Can you imagine convincing a man to eat again after starving himself for forty days? Can you imagine speaking to a man who had sewed his lips together whilst sitting in a shallow grave he had made because this was the only thing in his life he could control?  Can you imagine walking the halls of a prison looking into the eyes of men just a little older then children and elderly men all appealing to you to help them get out all, the while knowing they may spend the rest of their lives there. When you spend a lot of time with people at their weakest, most vulnerable and most humiliated do you see how grateful you should be for your life. Before I left Nauru there was a huge riot at the processing centre causing 60 million dollars in damage. I remember that night life it was just yesterday. A friend of mine wrote a book about it in fact and here is a little idea of what happened.

“The sky was ablaze with a dramatic Pacific sunset. Just when the heat was supposed to be leaving the day to make way for the refreshing nights breezes, the camp was sweltering with the shouts of the imprisoned… a chaotic atmosphere of chanting and screaming, large groups of people disappearing in and out of the dark while baseball sized objects whistled through the air… dust mingled with smoke and fire, blinding and suffocating them… fires streak: across the night sky protesters burning down one building after the other… fear spread through the island… local crowds arrived wielding weapons… The men pleaded… they were scared they would be attacked or killed…”

Nauru Burning, An uprising and its aftermath

Can you imagine just how grateful for my life I was when in this moment I didn’t know whether I or someone I worked with, or someone in the centre might die. Experiences like this cement in your mind how small your problems really are. When I face trials, I think back to these experiences. Maybe I don’t like to taste of dinner? I think to myself remember those men sitting in a prison 15 to a cell with nothing but a plastic bag of boiled rice to eat. Perhaps I feel a sense of injustice because I didn’t get a certain job I wanted? I remember the fisher men from a village in Sri Lanka who used their whole savings to take a perilous journey to the unknown all for a better life. Maybe I get a bit frustrated because I missed my favourite television show? I recall the men who missed their families and hadn’t seen them for three years. Perspective is a powerful thing.

How will you choose to see your trials brothers and sisters? How will you choose to view your life? Are you grateful or do you need a change in perspective?

If as workers for Christ you feel that you have had greater cares and trials than have fallen to the lot of others, remember that for you there is a peace unknown to those who shun these burdens. There is comfort and joy in the service of Christ. Let the world see that life with Him is no failure. – {GW 477.3}