11 October 2025

Gratitude is a very healthy discipline. Sometimes it is offered spontaneously but most of the time it requires us to think about it and act. It is not that we are ungrateful for what people do, but we forget to show our gratitude.

As children, my mother insisted on us writing thank-you letters at birthdays and Christmases and after the Sunday School Christmas Party and Summer Picnic, we were obliged to return to the kirk and give thanks to God!

In those days, there wasn’t much medical evidence to support this discipline but now we know that expressing gratitude can lower blood pressure and heart rate, enable people to sleep more soundly and boost self-esteem.

Gratitude helps us to focus on the positive things which are happening to us and other people. It decreases feelings of resentment, jealousy, frustration, stress. It reduces the desire for more and creates positive relationships within society.

We are all tempted to view the world negatively, framing our understanding of how the world turns by creating  stereotypes which Jesus clearly challenges and othering people who do not belong to our kirk, our village, our country.