50 of the Greatest Gratitude Quotes and Sayings
Thanksgiving. It’s nearly here. And perhaps you’re ready, but perhaps you’re really not.
Maybe the slow cooking of the turkey doesn’t match the pace of Thanksgiving Day. You dread the hustle and bustle through preparations and juggling of expectations and all the things.
And maybe today you need a break for a few minutes—a time out to sit with gratitude and let it soothe the hurry and worry.
So the post for this week is a special one, a collection of one-liners about gratitude from Begin Within: A Gratitude Series. I pray these words feed your soul as they have mine.
Gratitude quotes on mindset shift
Gratitude helps us surrender the need to do it all, be it all, and handle it all.
From “(To Live Well This One Beautiful Life) Gratitude Must Become A Habit” by Joy Marker
Living a life of gratitude is more about having the right lens than the right list.
From “Why Our Lens Matters (& How to Choose a Grateful One)” by Sarah Butterfield
The lessons of life, when intertwined with gratitude, can transform our hearts and make us better people, able to endure the hard with a new perspective.
From “5 Lessons Learned Along the Way I’m Grateful for Now” by Sherry Stout
The way I could shout back my thanks and make my voice carry to the heavens was to punctuate time by making my moments count.
From “How Almost Dying Taught Me How to Actually Live” by Rachel Marshall
Often the feeling of gratitude is the sum of many small parts, each of which provides its own opportunity for offering thanks.
From “3 Practical Ways to Be Thankful When You Just Don’t Feel Like It” by Gwendolyn Smith
Definitely life is easier with an adequate budget, but I don’t regret the creativity that has come from seasons of not having enough.
From “How to be Grateful in the Midst of Financial Hardship” by Jennifer Hunt
I think it’s important to understand that there’s a clear distinction between what it means to give thanks “in” everything rather than “for” everything.
From “On Being Thankful” by Anna Kettle
It’s become like an exciting challenge each day: What can I give? What can I notice that was given me? Both experiences bring joy. Both are beautiful gifts that come each day.
From “2 Questions To Ask Yourself Daily To Improve Your Life” by Maria Miller
Looking back to curate gratitude is important because life’s rapid pace often prevents us from thanking God in the current moment of blessing or provision.
From “How Looking Back in Gratitude Leads to Spiritual Growth” by Shirley Robinson
I’m grateful for the good in the midst of the pain.
From “This is My Unusual Gratitude List” by Rachel Schelb
Pay attention to all the good around you. Write it down. Train your brain to build that path and you will build a well-known hiking path to an oasis of rest inside.
From “1 Thing Science and the Bible Agree is Helpful” by Erika Anderson
Gratitude quotes for mental wellness
Gratitude tells both the heart and the mind that there is reason to take the next step forward.
From “Gratitude: A Bridge to Healing Postpartum Depression and Anxiety” by Allie Ososkie
I believe that deep, profound gratitude is a process and not a point of arrival, and that’s where the perfectionist in me gets frustrated.
From “This is “The List” That Became a 10 Year Miracle” by Megan Young
Slowly and beautifully attitudes transformed as depression slithered away, no longer at home in the presence of a heart reveling in God’s simple daily gifts for me alone.
From “Ashes to Diamonds: A Story of the Power of Gratitude” by Robin Seaton
Whatever type of thoughts you allow yourself to think day in and day out, that is who you become.
From “1 Thing Science and the Bible Agree is Helpful” by Erika Anderson
I was reminded that God always keeps His promises, and He promises He will finish the good work He began in us. And it rarely looks like we expect it to in our idealized imaginations.
From “How to Turn Disappointment and Depression Into Gratitude” by Heather Bjur
Giving thanks is not simply a band-aid in seasons of suffering, but a deliberate act of faith and obedience. Grief and gratitude can co-exist on our lips and in our hearts.
From “How to Prepare for Hard Times with a Daily Gratitude Practice” by Erica Baldwin
When the negative thoughts and self-doubt creeps in, acknowledge the moment and offer our creator a prayer of gratitude for who he has called you to be through his word.
From “How an Act of Gratitude Can Help You Love Yourself the Way God Intended” by Aida Maravillas
I could either continue to focus on the why, spiraling into despair and questioning God’s goodness. Or I could choose to be grateful.
From “Does God Seem Silent About Your Suffering?” by Julie Parido
In fact, I believe if we are not being intentionally grateful, we will become accidentally ungrateful.
From “This is How Gratitude Can Change Your Spouse” by Robert Prince
Never in a million years would I have tried thanking God for the moments when I feel the LEAST grateful. But it is changing me.
From “How to Grow Gratitude in an Ungrateful Heart” by Carolyn Pereira
When gratitude is regularly practiced it is as if the brain searches for reasons to be thankful even in the midst of bleak circumstances. Anxiety and depression can no longer dominate existence.
Gratitude tells both the heart and the mind that there is reason to take the next step forward.
From “Gratitude: A Bridge to Healing Postpartum Depression and Anxiety” by Allie Ososkie
Life could easily be riddled with paralyzing fear over the “what ifs” if I hadn’t learned how to turn my gaze to God’s goodness in the midst of uncertainty.
From “How to Prepare for Hard Times with a Daily Gratitude Practice” by Erica Baldwin
Gratitude quotes on faith
God tells us to rejoice, not in our circumstances, but in the God who sits with us in our circumstances.
From “(On the Darkest Days) Look for the Gold Glittering” by Evelyn Sherwood
It was the holiest and hardest NO humanity has ever known. And it is the sweetest NO we will always be grateful for.
From “How to Be Grateful When God’s Answer is No” by Becky Beresford
When I pay attention to God’s presence and working today—when I pause to notice and savor His goodness with a heart of gratitude—I will remember His faithfulness more deeply. And what I remember about the goodness of God marks how I anticipate the future, too.
From “How to Pay Attention to the Right Things” by Ruth Heinzmann
Just like hunger bids us to the table, so can a heart seeking the goodness of God lead us to gratefulness.
From “The Good Portion: Nourishing a Grateful Heart” by Daisy Dronen
Gratitude for the church has grown my love for her.
From “Why Gratitude Grows Our Love” by Amber Thiessen
When I take a moment to be still and invite the presence of God to lead me through a few moments of gratitude, my focus shifts away from all that I lack, to my father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10) and has given me more than I could ever ask or imagine.
From “Gratitude Is the Antidote (+ Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game)” by Pandora Villaseñor
If we live daily in Christ, we show love and gratitude.
From “Lessons From Littles: How to Grow Gratitude” by Tammy Royer
Am I too praising God only for what He has done for me or will do for me rather than simply for who He is?
From “1 Thing I’ve Forgotten to Give Thanks For” by Rachael Adams
I realized that the act of writing down the things I was thankful for had become so heavy because I had forgotten to take Jesus with me throughout my day.
From “How to Knock on the Door of Gratitude” by Celia Miller
In this fast-paced, frenzied world, we often miss God’s greatest gifts.
From “How to Be at Rest When Life Swirls Around You” by Denise Prosser
Gratitude quotes on friendship
Looking at myself through grace-tinted glasses allows me to look at my neighbors the same way.
From “How to Go Beyond Giving Thanks for Little Things” by Natalie Hilton
To this day, when my heart needs it the most, sitting down to write a gratitude list feels elementary. But I do it anyway because experience has shown me that gratitude is the antidote to the yucky feelings like comparison, envy, and insecurity that still want to overtake and convince me that I’m separate from others.
From “Gratitude Is the Antidote (+ Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game)” by Pandora Villaseñor
God’s generous and gracious answer to my simple prayer for women friendships has made me eternally grateful for the precious gift of Christian women friendships in my life today.
From “What Happened When I Prayed for Women Friendships” by Susan Park
As I am able to process each struggle, I intentionally look for where God was in the midst of each moment and almost every time, I see his provision, comfort, care, compassion, goodness, and love revealed to me through those around me.
From “5 Ways I Found God in the Middle of Struggle” by Jennie Denney
I’m thankful for those who walk a yard ahead.
From “From the Grateful Heart of a High School Football Mom” by Bethany McMillon
I learned what it means for the church to be the church: God’s people were our life and light through the valley of the shadow of death, and I will never stop being thankful.
From “We Were Not Alone in the NICU” by Rob Harrison
Gratitude quotes on family and marriage
Gratitude and offense cannot coexist, and this might be the most beautiful gift of all.
From “How to Release Offense and Walk in Gratitude” by Pamela Henkelman
Instead of sweeping the memories of difficult seasons in life under the rug, I make it a habit to discuss them with our children and point out God’s hand, even in times when he seemed silent.
From “This is Why An Eating Disorder Made My Gratitude List” by Ella Herlihy
It’s been fifteen years since I learned that God doesn’t throw broken things away. That instead, He gives them value and beauty and purpose . . . . Fifteen years later, my husband and I hold up this hardest thing we’ve walked through as also the thing for which we are most grateful. God led us to new life through it.
From “How to Be Grateful Even for the Broken Things” by Marnie Hammar
It didn’t happen immediately, but over the years we learned that to love well, to love like Jesus, we were going to have to stop focusing on the things we were not getting and instead start giving God glory for the things that were going right. We needed to focus on the blessings rather than unmet expectations.
From “This is How Gratitude Can Change Your Spouse” by Robert Prince
In this life, he is glorified in my weakness. In my desperate daily reliance on him as I face this battle, this moment-to-moment choice, of gratitude or groaning.
From “Gratitude: Breathing New Life into a Broken Marriage” by Jodie Cooper
When my atheistic thinking gave way to the Truth, I was slack-jawed at the beauty God created in a fresh way. As a young mom, I knew I wanted to instill that awe in my son and give him an outlet for the praise it evoked. This began our ritual of clapping for God.
From “1 Practical (+ Fun!) Way to Give Action to the Praise” by Mariel Davenport
I am thankful for the privilege of standing so close with her in that thin place, as the Irish Celtics called it–a place where one can almost see the wispy veil that separates this earthly dwelling from our heavenly one.
From “How to Choose Gratitude in the Thin Places” by Katie Pozzuoli
I had to take the risk and share the words of thanks that welled up in me or they would be lost.
From “Why I Almost Lost My Last Chance to Express Gratitude” by Lisa Dean
Gratitude quotes inspired by Ann Voskamp
We cannot feel fully grateful and fully fearful in the same instance: one will supersede the other.
From “How to Overcome Fear and Calm Anxiety with Gratitude” by Adelaide Mitchell
When I began to consciously look for things to be thankful for, I found them, I counted them and gradually they added up. It’s almost like they accrued interest.
From “When Counting It All Joy Feels a Little Like Death” by Susan Ely
Counting blessings does not mean living in denial of what is hard. Instead, it means allowing joy to transcend the hard, choosing gratitude in the midst of hard. It’s practicing the art of naming the hard and releasing it, then allowing the gifts to linger on the page each day.
From “(To Live Well This One Beautiful Life) Gratitude Must Become A Habit” by Joy Marker
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
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