Being thankful can be good for your health.

That is the finding of a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. The study found that people who wrote letters of gratitude experience greater happiness and more satisfaction with their lives. Related studies also show that people fared better health wise when they kept gratitude journals.

In the late 40’s AD, a famine swept across Jerusalem, The Jewish Christians there suffered the most because they were a minority and were discriminated against because of their belief in Christ. St Paul saw an opportunity here. He called upon his Gentile converts in far-away Greece to give money which he would personally deliver to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. He asked them to give according to their means. Paul saw this as a way for them to express their unity for others despite their different circumstances. And even beyond that, Paul states that they were not only meeting the needs of other Christians, they were performing an act of “thanksgiving to God”.

Gratitude to God. It’s at the heart of stewardship.

— from the Little Burgundy Book, Diocese of Saginaw