grateful #6

{found via pinterest}

it's time for me to jump back on the grateful train because lately i have not doing the best job of being grateful. it's not because i don't have much to be grateful for, but because i simply have not focused on being grateful.

but there is so much to be grateful for. there are still the normal, everyday things. the people and things i think of every single time "grateful" jumps to mind.

today i am especially grateful for my husband.
yesterday was his birthday. the fifteenth birthday we've celebrated together. and i'm grateful that even though he makes me crazy sometimes, and we get into arguments because we don't fully understand each other and we're broken people living in a broken world, he still tells me he loves me before we fall asleep at night. he reminds me that he always will.

i am grateful for my children. i am grateful for how they are learning and growing. i am grateful that they each have a pretty great sense of humor. i am grateful for their curiosity even though it gets all of us into trouble sometimes.

i am grateful that the God of the universe loves me even though i don't deserve it in the least. i am grateful for the many ways he has provided for me.

far too often i take the negative side - instead of remembering that there's always something to be grateful for, i find something to complain about. but when it really comes down to it, i have life and breath. i have a family that i don't deserve, and a husband who actually meant it when he vowed to love me "til death do us part."

God didn't have to give me any of that. but he did.

i complain way too much. i compare myself and my life to the people whom i perceive as having more. more money, more margin, more _______. we like to tell ourselves it's cathartic to complain, but it often makes us more used to complaining. it turns complaining into a habit. it makes me a complainer.

i don't want to be a complainer anymore. so i'm trying to combat that by refocusing, and taking a proper perspective.

today i will be grateful.
i am thankful for early wake-ups and the coffee that accompanies it.
i am thankful for books to read, and ideas that spring from them.
i am grateful for growth even when it hurts. and sometimes because it hurts because that means i'm stretching in ways i haven't before.

i am thankful to be able to coach another season. i would love to keep coaching for a very long time, but there may come a time when our family cannot commit to me coaching; so i'll enjoy it now.

i am grateful for this space we call home.
i am grateful for the opportunity to parent my children.
i am grateful for the chance to impact the next generation.

i have had a lot of "days" lately. as in: "today has been a day." but too often i let my days become days after just a little something here and there. when i think back over the day, it wasn't a bad day. it was a rough ten minutes, or a rough practice, or a rough drive to practice with construction, or some other sort of rough patch of the day.

but i let that one rough patch taint the whole day.

far too often i let a little thing become a big thing {which may have something to do with why my children struggle with this whole concept. maybe}.

it's time to nip it in the bud. a bad moment does not make a bad day. a bad day, or a bad week, or even a bad year does not make a bad life.

this isn't to say that there aren't rough patches, or that we should pretend things are amazing when they aren't. call a spade a freakin' spade. but don't live there. don't dwell on it. dwell in a place of gratitude.

like many other things worth doing in life: it may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

xoxo