Thursday, November 21, 2013

attitude of gratitude

I have so much to be thankful for.  Tonight however, I'm stressed and anxious and having a hard time FEELING thankful.  My brain wants to concentrate on my son.  On how much I hate third grade.  On how discouraged I am to see my son so discouraged.  I don't feel thankful.  I feel overwhelmed.

It was years ago when I was convicted about my attitude that focused on what I didn't have instead of what I did have.  After completing 30 days of thankfulness on Facebook, I was convicted that I should be concentrating on the good in my life all the time not just in November.  I went straight to searching for the perfect journal.  I needed an Attitude of Gratitude journal to continue to focus on the good in my life.

I began writing in it all the things I was thankful for. I'm so glad I did because not long after my life fell apart.  Some days through the tears I would force myself to think of something good in that day.  There were more than a few days that the only thing I could think of was that I had a cup of coffee that morning, or a hug from my boys, or a song on the radio.

I discovered through that season that gratitude isn't a feeling, it is an action.  Like love, sometimes I will feel the gratitude and sometimes I must choose it when I don't feel it.  Last year a friend gave me the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  It is a great book that expressed so beautifully something that God has already been doing in my own heart.

I have a dry erase board at my desk at work that I write things I'm thankful for.  If you are on my Facebook you see it weekly.  It doesn't mean my life is perfect.  Heaven forbid that anyone sees my pictures or my status updates and thinks I have it all together.  I don't.  There are plenty of days like today that my gratitude springs from the choice that I have made to trust that God is good even when life isn't.


my Attitude of Gratitude Journal and my Gratitude board 


So today, in the middle of my funk, in the middle of my overwhelm, I will choose to be thankful.  Today in particular I am thankful that Hubby took me to work in the snow this morning so that I would be able to walk out of work to a warm car this afternoon. I am thankful for my space heater radiating warmth as I type.  I'm thankful that I'm here and I'm thankful for a place to share my heart.

Your turn, what are you thankful for? 



1 comment:

Bonnie Gray said...

Hi Dawn, I am thankful for *you*. Thank you for writing your heart and sharing it with us in the Faith Jam before Thanksgiving. You wrote as is -- in your funk -- along with the rest of us. And now, we are not so alone. :) I hope you had moments of rest during the break and you're finding some this week as well.