The Upside-Down Gratitude List: What It Is And Why You Should Have One

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a rule-follower…mostly.

Honestly, my preference has always been to be a rule-follower with a twist. While I wouldn’t call myself an upstreamer, necessarily, I don’t like jumping whole-hog onto a popular bandwagon, either. Instead, I prefer to think over an activity or opportunity first, and then if I feel that it’s a good fit, I usually do my own version of it.

It was no different with my gratitude list this year. A close friend of mine asked me if I’d like to join her in filling out a 2-week list of things I was thankful for. I loved the idea and was excited to start.

But the day I printed out the fill-in-the-blank sheet to start my gratitude list, Baby D got sick…again. Since August, that makes 5 cases of the flu (3 of which ended in pneumonia), multiple head colds, and several instances of a stomach virus. This was NOT how I saw the first half of our homeschool year going!

At first, I was so.just.be.yond.done with illness. But then an idea occurred to me: why not turn my gratitude list on its head? Instead of putting down pleasant things that I’m thankful for (which would have been way easier, by the way), I opted instead to create my upside-down gratitude list. I wrote out things that I wasn’t immediately grateful for but things which I knew the Lord was asking me to have a good attitude about.

After all, we’re commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in all circumstances, not just for the pleasant ones. Most of us could probably come up with a quick list of the blessings we appreciate. But could we also find ways to be grateful for the difficulties as well?

I wanted to see if I was up to the task, so first on my list this year was the new virus.

It seemed sort of weird to write, “I’m thankful that Baby D got sick again.” So after a bit more thought, I decided to add why I was thankful. My full statement looked more like this:

“I’m thankful for Baby D’s new virus because it causes me to pray more fervently and more frequently than I would have done otherwise.”

Taking this approach to my gratitude list really made me stop and think about things from a more Biblical perspective. It’s provided a ton of food for thought, and it’s helped me to better understand why God sometimes allows unpleasantness in our lives. I may not always know why He permitted a specific item on my list (why did Grampie have to die just before Christmas?), but I usually can - if I think over and pray about it for a while - see at least some benefit that resulted from it (his passing reminded me all over again that God is gracious, that He has given each of us a finite number of days, and that we should never put off making a decision to follow Him).

Creating an upside-down gratitude list isn’t easy. But it has amazing benefits, so many that I feel that writing one out would bless every Christian willing to try it.

Is an upside-down gratitude list something you’re interested in trying? I hope so! I’m convinced that it’s a good practice for everyone, especially for believers. To make it a bit easier for you, I’ve created a free printable to help you get started. Simply head here to download it, then print it out and start filling it in!

Thanksgiving is the perfect season to count our blessings, both the obvious ones and those that are not so obvious. God loves to hear us praise His name, and creating an upside-down gratitude list is just one of many amazing ways we can glorify Him more.