“Gratitude is the attitude” said the spinning instructor to her class full of intrepid and somewhat exhausted riders. I was one of them. I liked the rhyme as I pedaled away; I liked the message even more.

I remember being with a friend who observed about someone he was having difficulty appreciating: “That guy has an attitude.” I figured  he meant a bad attitude. Perhaps, as they say, the guy needed an attitude adjustment. But don’t we all? Attitudes can be hard to pinpoint. They are what we gradually pick up on when we are with someone. Our souls are revealed by the attitude we display in our spoken and unspoken interactions.

Gratitude is the right approach to life; those who live gratefully develop an appreciative attitude towards everyone and everything around them, beginning with the Good Lord. God is the first to whom we owe a debt of gratitude. Thanksgiving is a vivid reminder that our nation has been abundantly blessed by a Creator who is a loving Father. The observance of this national day of turning towards God is a defining aspect of our national attitude. We are a grateful people who understand our blessings to be gifts from above—or at least we are taught to be such.

How do we show gratitude? One my dad’s friends was wont to say: “Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on Earth.” Service means doing good for others because we owe it to God and to our neighbor to use our time, talent, and energy to help those in need. God is pleased when we put into effect the commandment to love our neighbor. Our neighbor benefits from the good we (selflessly) do.

December is the month to activate our good intentions by doing things to bring joy into the lives of those around us, including people we don’t know. If I make it to Heaven, I look forward to learning who all the people were who showed kindness to me in life by their generosity in praying and making sacrifices for my intention. The mystery of God’s love for mankind includes the love we humans show to those God has placed in our lives— those we know and those we will only meet in the next life.

Fulfilling our obligation to love God and our neighbor is not a constraint on our freedom; it is a way of acting that overcomes our selfishness and narcissism. Acts of love done in gratitude for all that God has done for us teach us that life is about giving, not receiving. Grateful service to others is personally fulfilling, and consoling, because we know deep down that this is the way God wants us to live.

The Human Life Review was founded as a means of showing gratitude to God for the gift of life when that gift was falsely determined to be expendable by a majority of  Supreme Court justices. Pro-life activism pleases God and reminds the whole world that gratitude for the gift of life must overcome the deadly temptation to reject the innocent baby God wants us to love.

The attitude we cultivate in life depends on what we love. If we love our neighbor, then an attitude of gratitude will become our way of life. May God grant us grace to see things right and put others before ourselves.