Attitude of Gratitude

 Hello friends~! 

Long time no post! It's already December and the year we all thought would never end is nearing it's close. And what a year it has been. 

Whatever else happened this year no one can deny it has been difficult, filled with hardships and issues we never thought we would ever have to deal with. I know December is in full swing but I wanted to take a minute to reflect on a theme we see a lot of in this season of the year: Being thankful. 

November is typically a month where we see a lot more of that in our social media feeds and the news.  It's appropriate, of course, as we all gathered together around tables laden with sumptuous feasts for Thanksgiving Day to remind ourselves to be thankful for what we have and those around us. And we see it in December when a lot of people give to charities, food banks and toy drives. But what if being thankful didn't just last for the one day or one season of the year? We are incredibly blessed, more blessed than we realize. What would our lives look like if we lived like that every day? Seeing blessings in the small, mundane and the big things? Let's explore that a little bit.

The Bible has a lot to say about thankfulness. Ephesians 1:16 sums it up nicely by saying "Giving thanks always and for everything to Glory of the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Emphasis mine).

"Giving thanks always" that's a high call. That reminds of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that says"...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  Again, it's about always being thankful. That can be hard, especially this year. So here are my thoughts, let's create an Attitude of Gratitude. When you think of "I'm thankful/grateful for ____" what is your fill in the blank? 

The first one that comes to my mind is my husband. I love him dearly and am thankful for him. But why am I thankful for him? It's one thing to say "I'm thankful for my husband" and it's another to acknowledge all the reasons why I am thankful for him. I'm talking about that Attitude of Gratitude again. 

So here it goes. I'm thankful for my husband. Why? I'm thankful for his love and devotion to me and our marriage. I'm thankful for his Christian faith and leadership of our family of 2. I'm thankful for his servant heart. 

Once I start thinking about it hundreds more things to be thankful for come flooding to mind. Let's do another one. I'm thankful for my home. Why? Home is my refuge. It's my sanctuary of safety. It's a place to relax and a gift from God to take care of.  See how that snowballs in a good way? 

What are you thankful for? Your job? Family? Creative outlet? The sunshine today? It doesn't always have to be the big things either. My husband and I went for a walk yesterday during our lunch break and I said to him as we were walking back, "I'm so thankful we get to do this every day." There it is again, being thankful. Often times it's the little blessings we overlook. Sometimes it gets a lot more difficult to see blessings in the midst of uncertainty and this year has definitely been uncertain. 

The first few months of this year were very difficult emotionally for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people. One of the things I started doing was keeping a list of my gratitudes. I've been keeping that list in my prayer journal and whenever I'm feeling a little down I go back and read them and I (usually) perk up quickly and am reminded of ALL the wonderful blessings I have in my life, even when seeing them can be really hard. It's a beautiful written report of all the many blessings God has graciously given me in this crazy year. And reading through them helps me think of other blessings I hadn't thought of. See how that works too? It all works together to create an Attitude of Gratitude. 

So my challenge is this: What are you thankful for? Now take that a step further and seriously take a few minutes to think why you're thankful for those things. If you want, take it a step further and start writing them down. You'd be amazed at what reading your gratitudes can do for you. Creating an Attitude of Gratitude is hard work, but it's work worth doing. 

~just the musings of the 20s :)

Lauren

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*All Bible quotes are ESV unless otherwise noted