Just Be Grateful!
The other day, I overhead my wife and five year old daughter having a conversation at the kitchen table. My daughter wanted a snack, so my wife got her a glass of milk and some graham crackers.
“I don’t want that kind of graham crackers,” daughter said.
“That’s the only kind we have,” replied my wife. My wife was enjoying our one remaining piece of a banana cake that she’d made a few days before.
“I want a piece of cake instead,” said daughter.
“Here, you can have part of mine,” my wife replied. She cut the cake in half and put it on my daughter’s place.
“I didn’t get as much icing as you,” bemoaned my daughter.
“Could you just be grateful for something!”
This little situation reminded me of how so many of us approach our daily lives. We go through our day creating a little tally of all the things that don’t go right in our lives. I know that often by the time I start my work day, I’ve amassed quite a list of complaints: I have to get up too early, I cut myself shaving, I forgot the lunch I packed, my daughter was slow getting ready for school, we’re running late this morning, that person just cut me off in traffic, it’s taking me forever to turn left out of this parking lot, someone took my parking space at work, there’s that stack of papers I forgot to grade, I didn’t have time to eat breakfast so my stomach is growling… All of this by 7:45 in the morning!
Here’s a challenge for you and me, readers. Let’s just be grateful for something. Here’s what to do: Put a post up on your blog about what you’re grateful for. What are you grateful for today? Are there big things in your life that you’re grateful for? Are there little things that happened today that you’ve haven’t paused to recognize? My challenge to you is that you let your own readers know what you’re grateful for.
Let’s cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude.
If you need some help, here are some resources for you:
5 Ways to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude
Be Grateful - Self Improvement and Motivation
Update: Jeniffer accepted the challenge!
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About This Blog
In Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, the central character dies an early death. Emily is given the chance to revisit a day of her life and is advised by those in the afterlife to pick an ordinary day, warning her that she might be overcome otherwise. Still, Emily is overwhelmed with emotion as she recognizes how wonderful the everyday details of her existence were. Her daily routine takes on new significance now that it is gone. Through her tears, she asks:
Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it– every, every minute?
With this blog, I am trying to fully “realize” my life by documenting the things that I love. I want to appreciate and examine my past and present, as well as plan actively for the future.
I hope to accentuate the positive in my life and in the world around me, with the hope that by focusing on the positive, I will draw more positive elements into my life. Or, at least, realize all of the blessings that I do have.
Bob, the author of this blog, is a 33 year old husband, father, son, teacher, Christian, and liberal.
Love the blog and the article! Thank you for running such a nice site.
I am grateful for the reminder. Thanks Bob!
I did a post on my blog, called Gratitude Journal. I mentioned this post in it, if you’d like to have a look. Thank you for suggesting the challenge.
Jeniffer
http://www.thethirtydayyear.com
I have so many things to be grateful for. I couldn’t even begin to list them. One of my main ones is that I so grateful for each new day to be able to be with my family that mean so much to me.
Hi Bob, I just kicked off the Season of Gratitude over at Balanced Life Center. For 30 days leading up to Thanksgiving, I will do a post on gratitude - what I’m grateful for, why gratitude is importance, etc. Thought it would be a great compliment to this post.
You can find the invitation here: http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/272-2007-season-of-gratitude-invitation/
In Spirit,
Nneka