Gratitude: My Word for 2011

I don't typically do New Year's resolutions or the like, but I was reading about Ali Edwards' One Little Word a couple of weeks ago and it stuck with me. She talks about choosing a word or that a word might choose you. Well, when I read that, the word "gratitude" immediately came to mind. The concept of gratitude and thankfulness have been in just about everything I've read lately from my Bible to blogs to even some fiction books. I've also been reading Ann Voskamp blogging about her gratitude journal and One Thousand Gifts (her new book which is in incredible so far and I'm sure I will write more about once I finish). I believe God has impressed this word upon me.

As I began looking at this word, I looked up the definition of it. Dictionary. com defines it as "the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful." And Merriam-Webster's current dictionary similarly states that gratitude is "the state of being grateful." These do no justice to the word in my opinion so I continued to look it up and came across a beautiful definition in Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (you can look up words in this dictionary here),

An emotion of the heart, excited by a favor or benefit received; a sentiment of kindness or good will towards a benefactor; thankfulness. Gratitude is an agreeable emotion, consisting in or accompanied with good will to a benefactor,and a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services, or when no return can be made, with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty.

This paints a better picture of this word I've been studying. As I have researched "gratitude," I've been most intrigued by words that are associated with it. Words like grace, indebtedness, abundance, response, praise, simplicity, and contentment have been repeated as I've searched.

I will continue to seek the word in scripture and started a gratitude journal myself a few weeks ago. I'm interested to see what journey God has in store for me with this word.