The Small Gift of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Yes, I love the food and time with family and football games. But I especially love the focus on stopping and being grateful.

Gratitude is one of the simplest joys you can add to your life. It doesn’t cost a thing — except maybe your pride — and truly adds to your life. Studies have shown grateful people are more happy and more optimistic. And it’s a nice change to be looking outward in our selfish culture. Unfortunately, sometimes we miss the joy of gratitude because we’re focused on the wrong things.

When we think about what we are thankful for, we tend to think of big picture things: health, a new house, a promotion, etc. And while those are definitely things to be thankful for, if don’t experience any “big” moments in our year, we can overlook some incredible small blessings if we aren’t careful.

My kids are wonderful at pointing me to the small blessings, even if they don’t realize it. They see the world through a different lens than I do and their perspective can be refreshing. My daughter was noticing the clouds move through the sky today and remarked how they looked like God was pushing them along. I love that. God being sovereign over His creation, moving the clouds that will create the storms that will bring the rain and snow we need. Small blessing.

My oldest daughter made a purse and I asked if she was keeping it or gifting it. “I’m giving it to a friend,” she replied. I’m so thankful my kids have friends that are good influences, kind, helpful, fun, and encouraging. None of them are perfect, but they are all working and learning and growing together in Christ. Small blessing.

I could go on…pink sunsets, the heater under my desk, music, birds at my feeder, books, sweet memories with friends, laughter, the smell of cinnamon, bread fresh from the oven, snow.

It really doesn’t take long before our gratitude stretches across pages. But only if we have eyes open to appreciate the simplest, smallest of things.

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and may gratitude become a way of life.

Photo by Stephanie Klepacki on Unsplash

The Running List

I am a list keeper.

Even as a child before I could spell words, I would fill notebooks with lists of squiggles {ask my mom; she remembers throwing away mountains of scribbled paper}.

And once I could write, I was all about journals, lists, to-dos. When I started high school and got my first day planner, I wrote EVERYTHING down. Every assignment, every sports game I attended, who I ate lunch with…I was kind of obsessed.

With each new school year brought a new planner. August became my favorite month. And as I moved into adulthood, lists and planners followed. I have a notebook in my purse at all times, along with several colorful pens. I have a planner and lists on my desk. I keep a separate planner with lists in the schoolroom. I have scraps of paper by my bed,

I’ve found lists to be extremely helpful and use them for so much more than groceries. One of my favorite things to list {just for my own reflection} are gratitudes. The older I get, the more I realize how much there is to be thankful for. And while some of the things I list are incredibly small, the act of writing them down helps me to pay attention to things around me.

This idea isn’t new or unique to me. Books have been written about the value of cultivating thankfulness and recording them in journals or lists or photo snippets. But as with many things, you often don’t really understand the value until you put it into practice for yourself.

I list people, places, things, events, memories. I’ve found when I’m actively looking for things to be grateful for I can go on and on, much longer than I thought. And the simplicity of writing them down in a list means I can pull them out, return to those items listed, and remember to be thankful all over again, even when times are rough.

Some of my most challenging lists of gratitude were during quarantine in 2020. When you can’t leave your home, everything is cancelled, and the future looks like a big empty void {remember, I love to plan and my new planner in 2020 went from full to empty for weeks on end. It was crushing}, it wasn’t surprising that finding reasons to be thankful didn’t flow easily from my pen.

However, when I looked, when I thought and concentrated for just a few minutes, there was always something.

Health

Sunshine and a yard to enjoy when all the parks closed

Technology to see friends virtually

Food

Family games and movies

I’m sure you get the idea. There’s always something we CAN be grateful for, but sometimes it takes a little more effort and thought. And now I have list upon list of gratitudes, even for 2020.

I still have running lists — groceries, gift ideas, birthdays, projects, writing ideas, school resources — but the one that continues to help me the most is my list of thankfulness.

Photo by Paico Oficial on Unsplash