{"id":36215,"date":"2022-10-27T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T21:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/"},"modified":"2022-10-27T21:23:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T21:23:00","slug":"4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author and blogger Chris Winfield shares his thoughts on gratitude:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&ldquo;Why did this have to happen to me?&rdquo; It didn&rsquo;t matter if it was something big (my dog gets cancer, good friend dies) or something little (flight is delayed, spilled something on my shirt). I was in a constant state of &ldquo;poor me.&rdquo; This all started to change once I began writing a gratitude list every single day for the past 34+ months and it has changed my life profoundly. Here are the 4 most important things I&rsquo;ve learned on my gratitude journey:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. It&rsquo;s Hard at First<\/strong>: My mentor told me to text him three things that I am grateful for <em>every day<\/em>. Sounds pretty easy right? Well, it wasn&rsquo;t. When you&rsquo;ve lived most of your life <em>not<\/em> focusing on gratitude, it&rsquo;s not so simple to change that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. There Is Always Something to Be Grateful For<\/strong>: No matter what was going on in my life (business problems, I was sick, someone cut me off in traffic) there was <em>always<\/em> something that I could find to be grateful for (my health, my daughter&rsquo;s smile, etc.).<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Gratitude Grows the More You Use It<\/strong>: My gratitude lists started off very basic and I struggled to find things to be grateful for (especially on the really tough days). But once I consistently took action, it became easier and easier.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. It Can Help Stop Negative Thought Patterns<\/strong>: According to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, the average person has about 70,000 thoughts each day! There&rsquo;s one big problem with this &mdash; the vast majority of these thoughts are negative. Gratitude can work to stop these negative thought patterns by replacing it with something positive.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3592,3683,3786,3796,3805,3871,3918,3972,4092,4107,4117,4246,4303,4321,4570,4885,5145,5146,5147],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-36215","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-christian-life","tax_ctp_tags-contentment","tax_ctp_tags-disappointment","tax_ctp_tags-discontent","tax_ctp_tags-dissatisfaction","tax_ctp_tags-entitlement","tax_ctp_tags-expectation","tax_ctp_tags-faultfinding","tax_ctp_tags-gratitude","tax_ctp_tags-grumbling","tax_ctp_tags-happiness","tax_ctp_tags-ingratitude","tax_ctp_tags-joy","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-optimism","tax_ctp_tags-satisfaction","tax_ctp_tags-thanks","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving-day"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author and blogger Chris Winfield shares his thoughts on gratitude: &ldquo;Why did this have to happen to me?&rdquo; It didn&rsquo;t matter if it was something big (my dog gets cancer, good friend dies) or something little (flight is delayed, spilled something on my shirt). I was in a constant state of &ldquo;poor me.&rdquo; This all Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/\",\"name\":\"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-27T21:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-27T21:23:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/4-lessons-learned-by-writing-1024-gratitude-lists\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"4 Lessons Learned by Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists - CT Pastors","og_description":"Author and blogger Chris Winfield shares his thoughts on gratitude: &ldquo;Why did this have to happen to me?&rdquo; It didn&rsquo;t matter if it was something big (my dog gets cancer, good friend dies) or something little (flight is delayed, spilled something on my shirt). 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