Gratitude Is The Glass

An optimist sees the glass as half full, and a pessimist sees the glass as half empty. If the water in the glass represents all of the good things in our life, all of the things that we have a reason to be thankful for, then gratitude represents the glass itself. It is easy to feel grateful when the glass is half full, but it is still possible to have gratitude even when the glass is completely empty because gratitude is the glass. The glass represents our capacity to receive and appreciate blessings and opportunities from the Lord. When the Lord doesn't fill our glass quite as full as we had hoped or expected or demanded, we can either throw a tantrum and throw away our glass, thus making it much, much harder to receive anything else from the Lord; or, we can hold onto our glass and be grateful that even if it doesn't seem particularly full to us right now, we at least still have a glass with plenty of room in it to receive many more blessings as soon as the Lord is ready to pour them down upon us. Gratitude has little to do with the contents of our glass and everything to do with the fact that we have a glass at all. Gratitude is our ability and willingness to receive whatever the Lord sees fit to give us, and in whatever quantity and at whatever time He sees fit. We can't determine what goes into the glass, but we do have the choice of humbly holding it up to receive, or petulantly holding it upside down so that nothing comes in. If our glasses aren't yet half full, let's hold onto our glasses and hold them up with grateful and hopeful hearts that God may yet fill our glasses to the brim and overflowing as He pours out a blessing so big that we don't have room enough to receive it.