grat·i·tude
/ˈgratəˌt(y)o͞od/
Noun
The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

Synonyms
gratefulness – thankfulness – thanks – appreciation

With so much going on in our every day lives, it’s easy to get caught up in obsessing about what we don’t have. This thought can cause anger, resentment, and even depression. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, try finding gratitude for all that you do have. If you can’t think of anything, maybe this will help. I found these statistics and they definitely made me rethink my own definition of gratitude. I hope it can do the same for some of you.

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of 100 people, with all the existing ratios remaining the same it would look something like the following:
There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the western hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in sub-standard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from mal-nutrition
1 would be near death
1 would be near birth
1 (only one) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

If your parents are still alive or still married, you are very rare. Even in the United States. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8 percent of the worlds wealthy.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75 percent of this world.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week because of illness.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.
If you’ve never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you’re ahead of 5 hundred million people in the world today.

So if you have the opportunity to think as you choose to think, worship as you choose to worship, have a little bit of change in your pocket, have your health, and someone who cares about you, then you have an awful lot to be grateful for.