A critical attitude can ruin anything. Trust me, I know. When I see a glass that’s either half-empty or half-full, I think, that’s not even the right kind of glass.

I’m not usually that bad, but I have my days.

We just had Thanksgiving here in America, which ironically provides people everywhere with a long list of things to gripe about:

  • Travel delays!
  • Handsy security personnel (a rare example of healthy paranoia)!
  • Weird relatives!
  • Leftover turkey for weeks!
  • Early Christmas decorations!

Thanks for saving our lives… even though….

And even if we do think of some things we’re actually grateful for, we can definitely think of ways they annoy us:

  • I'm thankful for a family that loves me… even though they're insane.
  • I'm thankful that I have a job… which is a mind-numbing grind.
  • I'm thankful that I live in a free country… even though our economy is poo.
  • I'm thankful for this video game I get to play… which is lacking the following features….
  • I'm so thankful for my cute little daughter… except when she makes that awful noise for no reason.

We feel compelled to complain, sometimes. And because of that, so many of the blessings we have are negated in our minds. We criticize the good stuff and emphasize the bad stuff. We qualify our thankfulness.

Try this: drop the qualifiers.

Be grateful that the good stuff happened at all. It didn’t have to. Emphasize the negative, and that’s all you’ll see. I’ve been trapped there before. Sometimes all you have to do to get out is take a second to recognize the good and let yourself be glad.

And hey, maybe some really awful stuff from your past has ruined your holidays. I’m not making light of that. But you can still praise God for this: it doesn’t have to be like it was.

Give thanks, and keep giving thanks. It makes life better.