Welcome back. I'm Chris Moore. Today we're exploring something that can transform not just your leadership, but your entire outlook on life, and that's gratitude in our world, we are often focused on really what's next. We focus on what's lacking. We talk about gratitude, but we really focus on what needs fixing. Gratitude seems nice, but it's also just an extra, but what if thankfulness isn't just a pleasant personality trait that we talk about, but a powerful leadership practice that changes how we lead. How your team responds, whether you're experiencing success or setbacks, gratitude has the power to reframe your perspective about life. Let's see what God's word says about leading with thankfulness. First Thessalonians, chapter five, verse 18 says, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This verse reveals something important about our very nature. We often focus on challenges over blessings. Notice the scope of Paul's instruction and everything give thanks, not just in good things, not just in the things that we expected, not just in successful things. In everything. This is challenging precisely because it does not line with our natural tendencies. You know, even as leaders, we're trained to be problem solvers. To find a problem and fix it and move on. We're conditioned to identify what's wrong so that we can fix it. We're encouraged for continuous improvement, which means always focusing on what could be better, anything and everything. While these aren't bad qualities, they do create a perpetual focus on the deficit on things that we're lacking Always seeing what's missing rather than what's present, what's broken, rather than what's working. Think about our typical leadership conversations. How much time do you spend discussing problems versus celebrating wins? I don't know about you, but the majority of meetings that I've ever attended in my work life are about problems. How often do our team meetings focus on what went wrong instead of the things that went right and how we can duplicate that in the future? How quickly do we move past achievements? We celebrate, we put the trophy on the wall, and then we immediately look for our next challenge, our next impossible thing to overcome. For many of us, the honest answer is. We're in a deficit. We lack gratitude, not because we're ungrateful. We may even see ourselves as grateful, but our culture pulls us towards a problem focus rather than being thankful. And this matters because what we focus on grows bigger. It expands when we constantly spotlight problems, small problems even grow larger in our perception. What does this passage also reveal about God? First God's wills us to be thankful in all circumstances. It says, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This isn't a suggestion or a nice idea. It's God's explicit will for our lives and God's doesn't will things for us that. Are not for our benefit. He doesn't command what won't ultimately lead to our lives flourishing in him. So when he calls us to gratitude and everything, it's because he knows that this attitude is essential for our long-term wellbeing and just the effectiveness of our life. God also understands the transformative power of thankfulness. It shifts our focus from our limitations to our provision. Our attention from problems to his presence, it transforms our perspective from being one of lack to being one of abundance. My own dad in dealing with cancer for over a decade, stage four cancer. And yet he was thankful even telling some people at times about the things that happened to thankful for my heart attack. Instead of focusing on the problem, the heart attack, the thing that could have ended his life and came close too. He viewed it as a blessing and was thankful and told people how thankful he was for that event. God's perspective is so much bigger than our circumstances. By calling us to give thanks in everything. God reminds us that he's working in ways that we can't see. He brings about good from situations that appear as only bad as possibly horrible. As Romans 8 28 says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose, even when we can't see it. How do we apply this principle of gratitude to help change our leadership? We should begin meetings, discussions, one-on-ones with appreciation and acknowledgement. One of the simplest ways to infuse gratitude is just to intentionally start any team gathering with appreciation. Get specific. Celebrate wins. Express gratitude for efforts and attitudes. Even in failure, we can appreciate the struggle that someone went through and how they came through to the end. Share positive feedback when we hear it. It doesn't have to be elaborate. This practice doesn't just express gratitude. It starts to cultivate it. We start looking forward to those things we start naturally looking for and acknowledging the things that are going right. And we need to make sure that we research consistently looking for the most effective ways that we can build that thankfulness to make it intentional, to make it a regular practice and to make it real. So I know some people journal, they begin each day by writing down three specific things. They're thankful for. Others end their day trying to note what went well, not just what remains to be done. Write down those good moments so that we can review them later, and what happened throughout the year, should be more than just, we accomplished these projects, but what are the things that we celebrated? And then take a few minutes before those difficult conversations have to identify what we appreciate about the situation of the people involved. We don't want to ignore challenges, but we do need to create a balance perspective that sees both the problems that need solving and the blessings that sustain us through our problem solving. Just general gratitude. Thanks for all you do is better than no gratitude at all, but specific appreciation. Is transformative when somebody notices and name exactly what you value in that person for what they've done. Not only expressing the gratitude, but you reinforce why it matters. So be detailed in your appreciation. I noticed how you handled that customer's concern and you were so patient. Remember, what you recognize will get repeated when you start appreciating behaviors that align with your values. Even in the bad times, you'll cultivate more of those good experiences. Some leadership situations make gratitude very difficult. They don't naturally evoke thankfulness. These are precisely the moments when we need gratitude the most. When the person who is struggling. Needs it the most and we need to deliver that. What opportunity might be embedded in this challenge? What is this situation teaching us that we needed to learn? What resources, relationships, or strengths do we have to address this problem? And how might God be working in ways that we can't yet see? We don't wanna minimize difficulties. We're not trying to force positivity, but we do need to widen our lens out, to go beyond what the immediate problem is, into the context of how is God working in this one, Thessalonians five 18 calls us to give thanks and everything. Not because everything is good, but because God is working in everything for good. We naturally focus on problems, but gratitude transforms our perspective and can enhance our leadership. So what is your challenge? Start a meeting. Start a conversation, acknowledge an achievement and express thanks. Be deliberate to begin every gathering with at least two minutes dedicated to appreciation and celebration of the things that went right, the things that people are doing for you, for the company, for the community, for your customers. Notice what's going well and watch how this simple practice begins to shift, not just your meetings, but your culture. Your personal attitude. If this message helped you share it with another leader who might need this perspective. Don't forget to subscribe for more weekday devotions until tomorrow. Remember that gratitude isn't just a feeling to experience. It's a practice that you need to cultivate.