I’ve decided to join the gratitude community over at A Holy Experience. For a long time I’ve considered Thankfulness one of God’s greatest blessings and keys to living in peace and contentment. But I’ve realized that I want to be more intentional about living thankfully.
I’ve taught my kids that thankfulness is like magic, it makes grouchiness disappear. Luke can be a glass-half-empty kind of guy, so he doesn’t always appreciate (if he’s especially complain-y, I’ll make him stop and give me 5 things he’s thankful for.) He’s so much like me!! Sees what he would change, rather than what is good about the way things are!
Tobin on the other hand, blesses both Luke and I (and takes after his daddy in finding it easy to be thankful and content) with his quickness toward gratitude. Lately he’s taken to giving thanks for “lovely” things. I think he got that word from his sweet Grammie, who uses it a lot. Before meals, he thanks the Lord for “this lovely meal.” And at night when he’s doing his “thankfuls”, he’s been including “Thank you for this lovely house we live in.” (He chooses each night how many thankfuls he wants to do…he almost always says “3, because I’m 3!”, but then does 10.)
I’ve considered just being thankful in my personal journal (which I have to make myself do even more often than I have to make my kids… For example, I was feeling less than grateful on my 39th birthday, so I made myself make a list of 39 things I was thankful for – it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.)
But the whole point of this for me is to be more intentional – not just giving thanks when I feel thankful, or to help me feel better when I’m feeling especially grouchy. I want to make gratitude a regular part of my days and weeks – so I’ll begin to notice the 1000s of blessings always around (a reminder that we serve a God of ABUNDANCE). I want to live worship-fully, rather than being rushed through my days according to my to do list. And I think being intentionally thankful will help me. So I’m going to do it on here, for the accountability.
For this week, I’m going to blog some of my thankful list each day. In the future, I’ll mostly focus in on my list on Mondays. But I want to get a jump start.
So today, I’m thankful for…
- A God who knows me and wants to be known by me.
- A warm place in a cold world
- The changing of the seasons
- The view out my bedroom window right now – glorious fall color greeting me first thing.
- Light mornings
- That my job is to love. Love first, tasks second.
- A big boy who resists hugs at first, then settle in for more. Precious.
- A little boy who constantly wants my attention, for whom I am audience #1.
- Lessons on doing without – because I have way more than I need, even if there are things I want that we have to say no to right now.
- The gift of thankfulness, which really is like magic.
- Messes that have to be clean (because messes = kids, and kids are worth it.)
- Sweet friendships – and free long distance to maintain those friendships.
- A season to be reminded of ABUNDANCE.
- Coffee with gingerbread creamer.
