“Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. …”
Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 284
The question arises – “How can we be thankful in adversity?” I’ve found that a gratitude journal helps. I started a gratitude journal last year because of a weekly prompt in one of my yahoo groups. Every Thursday is Thankful Thursday. Each week a person list 10 things her or she is thankful for.
I gave my gratitude journal the name of Glory because I began in the month of Jalal, which means Glory. When I make my weekly entry I address the journal directly as “Dear Glory”. I put the date of the entry above the salutation and when I’ve completed the grateful list I end the entry with either “Thankfully Yours” or “Gratefully Yours” and sign my name.
The great thing about a Gratitude Journal is that you can make monthly, weekly, or daily entries. The entries don’t have to be in letter form. I can make a gratitude entry in any form from proses sentences to poems. Sometimes I list the reason I’m grateful and sometimes I just list an item without saying why I’m grateful for it. All though, in times of adversity and troubles it’s nice to know the reason I’m grateful for something.
If I make more than one weekly entry, then I always make sure that the Thursday entry is 10 items. There are times when it is difficult to find 10 things to be thankful for, but I’ve found that persistence and prayer helps. Entries other than Thursday are, at least, three. The problem with making the entry smaller than 10 is that it doesn’t stretch my gratitude muscle. Ten items exercise that spiritual muscle more then items.
Another way to be thankful in adversity is prayer. If I have problems finding things to be thankful for, then I choose a prayer for “Praise and Gratitude” from the Baha’I Prayer Book. After I say one of the prayers revealed by Baha’u’llah, the Bab or written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha then I can find several things to be thankful for.
A Gratitude Journal is a wonderful thing to have; I can look back at the past entries for a pattern or ideas for poems, stories, articles, or blog entries. Of course, I don’t have to share my thankful list with anyone at all, I can keep it private if I want, but I usually share the Thursday entry at the very least. I know that I like to see what other people are grateful for, because often I find things that I have in my own life I forgot to list.
I suggest everyone make a gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be a formal journal. It can be a loose-leaf notebook or a blog entry. The advantage to having a formal gratitude journal is that I can look back over the past entries in times of difficulties or when I’m not going through difficulties and see how Baha’u’llah has blessed my life.
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