Sometimes it’s easier to complain about what’s wrong in our lives than give thanks and gratitude for all we have in blessings. I’m am guilty of it as much or more than anyone. Just the name of this blog will tell you that! But, the end of the year is a time of looking back and reflecting and I was thinking of the blessings in my own life, and while I appreciate them, I don’t give thanks as often as I should. If we counted our blessings as often as we complained about problems, I think we would be all happier and more positive people.
If, in general, you are blessed with good health, that’s a huge thing to be thankful for. If you have a good marriage, in a time when the divorce rate is over 50%, that’s a miracle. If your children and grandchildren are all healthy and happy, what more could you want? If you have a job and can make ends meet until something better comes along, then you are ahead of the game. We take it for granted if we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and a bed to lay our heads on at night, but many don’t have that.
Instead of complaining about laundry, be thankful we have clothes. If you have a car or means of transportation to get to and from work, that’s worth a few words of thanks. If you have a cell phone, cable, internet, things that you consider necessities but are really luxuries, then those are blessings. If you were given intelligence, which is something you can’t buy but gets you farther in life, that’s something to be grateful for. If we have the gifts of sight and hearing should we be taking those for granted? When we complain we are too tired to walk, do we ever think of those who can’t?
If you have family and friends who love you, how much is that worth? If you have a friend you can call 24/7, who not only cares enough to listen, but will help you anyway they can, how often have you told them you appreciate them? If your mom and dad are still living, that is a blessing. If your parents are not living, but have raised you to be the best person you can be, that is priceless, they live in you.
Sure life gives us plenty to complain about every day, I’ll be the first one to vent about it. But when you take time to list all the blessings we are given everyday, that we expect to be there and take for granted, we are missing out on being happier and more positive people. Instead of dwelling on the things that go wrong or things we don’t have, we can focus and give thanks for all we do have. It’s all right there under our noses, if we only take a few minutes to realize it.
Maybe, before 2011 ends and we take stock of all the bad things that happened, we can take an equal amount of time to take inventory of all the good things we have enjoyed. We might even find that our list of blessings is much longer and more significant than the problems we have had to deal with?
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