Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude. This word has been on my mind and heart for the last couple months. In fact I gave a lesson on it Sunday to the women in my church. It's funny, have you ever meet someone that always seems to just have bad luck? Well that's me...and maybe Mark too. So together we both sort of have a little rain cloud of trouble or bad luck that is always seeming to follow us around. I've sort of gotten use to it, but sometimes it's really exhausting. I always say with a chuckle in my voice that "We have the BEST, WORST luck ever." I mean really, if you really knew me, you would know this to be true.

Well lately it has seemed overwhelming and it's really brought a negative feeling into our lives and home. I'm well aware that we all have trials and struggles. Many often, in fact most often, unseen to others. But we are all battling something...it's life. Life is all about trials. Trials are what mold and shape us into who we are. But I'm learning that we have to allow those trials, as hard as they may be, to mold us. We have to be malleable so that those trials can refine us and shape us into who our maker wants us and foresees us to be.  Now believe me, it's not always easy!!! I know! In fact, it's easier said than done I have found. When you have or are going through something that has rocked you to your core and stripped you of everything it's hard to see that you can or will be shaped into anything. But I am here to attest to you that there is a master plan. One we may not understand. One that we may question. But one that is given to us, in fact entrusted to us and only us. Not "because God won't give you more than you can't handle," (which by the way is not found ANYWHERE in scripture thank you, I have looked), but because God knows what you can become if you allow the refiner's fire to test you, even though you may not think you can withstand the heat. It is these tests, the burns, the scalding and so forth from the fire of trials that will help us to change and always remember that change. The change for the better I pray.

Even I have been tested, and put through the refiner's fire I have seen, experienced and been blessed with so much that I have truly been grateful for! To deny that there have been blessings even through the hardest of times would be betraying the good, the righteous, the beauty and ultimately God.

So as we start this new year I am going to try and have an attitude of gratitude. Give more gratitude, even when times are hard. Verbalize my gratitude in the present to those I love more often so that I won't live with regret when it's not possible any longer. To try and laugh a little more even when it seems my little rain cloud is pouring down on me.

It is said that "Gratitude is the memory of the heart." I love this! It's so true. Those things that you are truly grateful for are ingrained in your heart and can never be forgetten as they are the memory of the heart.

So I am starting a Gratitude journal and I will extent the invitation to you as well. It's something that you can write in daily, for just 2-5 minutes. Or you can write in it weekly. But be sure to write at the top "I am grateful for....". I have read how this is life changing, and I'm ready for that positive change in my life! So here's to a grateful year!!!