A mãe de todas as virtudes

Mais um trabalho com prazo absurdamente curto. Desta vez, o texto a ser traduzido é de um autor que eu não gosto muito. O Word travou de novo. Nenhum dicionário explica essa palavra direito. E por que minha conexão está tão lenta? Acordei com dor de cabeça. Chuva outra vez? Meu cabelo está horrível! Gostaria que alguns amigos dessem notícias com mais freqüência. Por que os biscoitos têm cada vez menos recheio? Não suporto fila em supermercado. Aliás, os preços estão pela hora da morte. E o que dizer das ruas esburacadas, muros pichado, lixo nas calçadas? Ah, se eu morasse no Canadá...

Bem-vindo aos meus pensamentos. Alguns deles são relacionados a problemas legítimos para os quais é possível encontrar soluções igualmente legítimas. A questão não é essa. A questão é a minha atitude mental em relação a esses problemas. Como lido com a insatisfação enquanto providencio soluções? E o que fazer quando não posso mudar aquilo que me deixa insatisfeita?

Algumas fontes de descontentamento são coisas pequenas da rotina de trabalho ou da casa. Outras são mais sérias, associadas ao rumo que a vida está tomando. Não importa. O que importa é saber onde fica a gratidão em meio a esses padrões de pensamento.

A gratidão deveria ser o resultado lógico do reconhecimento da soberania de Deus sobre minha vida. Deveria brotar espontaneamente da consciência de que ele provê tudo de que necessito, inclusive o bom senso e a sabedoria para enfrentar pequenos e grandes desafios. Deveria transbordar naturalmente de um coração que ama Deus. Será?

Mesmo depois de sermos regenerados e remidos por Deus, precisamos passar pelo processo de santificação que se estende até o dia em que veremos o Senhor face a face.

Como tantas outras virtudes, a gratidão é cultivada ao longo desse processo. É um hábito. De acordo com o Dicionário Aurélio, “hábito” é uma “disposição duradoura adquirida pela repetição freqüente de um ato, uso, costume”. Repetição freqüente.

Cultivada repetidamente com a graça e o auxílio de Deus, a gratidão transforma o modo como vemos o mundo, fortalece nosso espírito para os desafios diários e, acima de tudo, tributa a Deus a glória e o louvor que lhe são devidos.

Em seu artigo Gratitude: Pathway to Permanent Change (ver trechos selecionados abaixo), publicado em Faith in the Workplace, Michael Zigarelli trata dos frutos da gratidão e sugere maneiras de cultivá-la na vida diária. O artigo é longo e traz uma ou outra colocação que, a meu ver, precisa ser analisada com espírito crítico, mas vale a pena ler e colocar em prática algumas das sugestões.

Sei que, pela graça de Deus, meu coração pode ser transformado e o padrão de meus pensamentos pode mudar para algo como:

Senhor, muito obrigada por mais um trabalho. Obrigada por me dar forças e capacitação para cumprir os prazos. Obrigada porque, mesmo não sendo meu autor predileto, este sujeito tem abençoado muita gente. Obrigada porque tenho acesso a tanta tecnologia. Obrigada porque o Senhor tem me dado saúde. Obrigada porque o Senhor me criou da forma como sou (cabelos rebeldes e tudo). Obrigada pela chuva, por meus amigos, pelo alimento. Obrigada porque o Senhor tem propósitos para a minha vida neste país, neste bairro. Obrigada porque o Senhor tem provido os meios para eu viajar e desfrutar as belezas da sua criação em outras partes do mundo.

Obrigada!

Gratitude: Pathway to Permanent Change
Michael Zigarelli

[…] Centuries ago, the philosopher Cicero argued that among virtues, gratitude is "the parent of all the others," a virtue that begets other virtues. There seems to be a lot of truth to that claim. Growing one's gratitude appears to have a radical and transformational effect on character because it is one of God's primary vehicles for inducing (or "parenting") other Christian qualities. […]

Gratitude does all this by setting a new thought context for processing our circumstances in life—a context of an abundant life. A context where everything we have is a gift. A context where we see clearly all that we really do have in life, and where we recognize that things could always be worse. Within this context, our view of the entire world is different and we are suddenly empowered to be the people God calls us to be—to more deeply love God, to love neighbor, and to love our own lives. To be authentic salt and light at home, at work, at church, and everywhere else.

[…] gratitude is positively related to such critical outcomes as life satisfaction, vitality, happiness, optimism, hope, empathy, and the willingness to provide emotional and tangible support for other people, while being negatively related to anxiety, depression, and overall disposition. […]

Growing Gratitude by Disciplining Your Mind

[…] We've all experienced moments in life when we suddenly become cognizant of the enormity of blessing in our life. A narrowly-averted collision with a tractor-trailer. A momentarily-lost child at the store. […] An eye-opening missions trip to a destitute area. A clarifying moment of watching our children sleep.

A wave of thankfulness quickly follows such events and lasts for as long as we remain mindful of the blessing. During that time, we experience significant manifestations of Christian virtues. We become more Christ-like in our disposition toward everyone and everything. But—and most of us have experienced this as well—the empowerment vanishes as suddenly as it appeared, and we're back to being the people we were before. The transformation, while welcome and wonderful, was fleeting. That's the nature of gratitude. It's a generator of other virtues, but only so long as it exists.

I found that one of the major secrets to success for "high-virtue Christians"—those who are most consistently Christ-like—is that they have mastered the art of maintaining a grateful disposition. Gratitude is simply part of who they are, rather than being some sporadic, refreshing occurrence. How do they do it? How do they nurture and sustain a grateful spirit?

In a sentence, they think differently from the way many of the rest of us think. The mind of the high-virtue Christian, it seems, is a disciplined mind, a pure and godly mind. A mind that is adept at immediately clearing away sinful thoughts. It is a mind that is focused on what one has rather than what one does not have. A mind that refuses to think in terms of what's missing from life—in terms of how much better life could be "if only … " Instead, the high-virtue Christians in my study want what they have. They are fully content with what's been conferred upon them, and they frequently thank God for their blessings. […]

What do high-virtue Christians think about instead of entertaining envious thoughts? Where are their minds during their day-to-day routines? Here's a striking statistic that reveals one of the key differences between high- and average-virtue Christians: Four out of five high-virtue Christians consistently remember throughout the day how God has blessed them. Only two out of five average-virtue Christians say they do this.

One might reasonably ask at this point: Are these people thanking God more than others do because they are well-off financially? Because they have more material possessions? Because they have more temporal assets than do others? These are not the reasons for their gratitude. In fact, I found that gratitude may be related to having fewer worldly goods. […]

What does drive gratitude is proper perspective. Seeing clearly. Remaining mindful moment-to-moment of what God has bestowed upon you. High-virtue Christians are perpetually aware of their bountiful life, regardless of what that life entails. They have trained their minds to think about the abundance in their lives rather than the insufficiencies. And it is this habit—a habit of keeping perspective—that transports them to the next level of gratitude and of character.

[…]

A Summary of the Recommendations for Growing and Sustaining Gratitude

• Make a habit of thinking about the blessings in your life and thanking God for them. Make this a practice throughout every day. Consider keeping a daily "gratitude journal" to formalize this process of identifying the blessings.
• Watch for envy. Regularly examine yourself to identify where and when you are envious and work toward rejecting such thoughts when they creep into your mind. Replace those thoughts with thanks to God for what you do have in life.
• Practice the disciplines of periodic fasting and regular confession of sin with one aim being a clearer understanding of the gifts bestowed on you in life.
• Expose yourself to information about the dire condition of others around the world and make prayer for these people a staple of your prayer life.
• Create other habits that remind you of how blessed you are and of how much worse life could be.
• Engage in this gratitude-growth program as part of a broader program to become a more God-centered person.