Being Grateful for Being Grateful

Can our gratitude grow? I think so. The more we find to be grateful for the more grateful we are. The more grateful we are the more grateful we become. Being grateful is like a muscle, the more we exercise it, the more it grows. Our gratitude can become something innate, a part of who we are.

I haven’t always been as grateful as I am today, but my life took a turn, years ago, after reading Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts.

Wanting to become more grateful, I made a commitment to write down, on a daily basis,  what I was grateful for until I reached the number 1,000. That was not the gist of Voskamp’s book, but that is what I challenged myself to do anyway. 

Back then, my kids were still little tykes and my days mostly revolved around their needs; homeschooling, chauffeuring them to their events and then falling into bed exhausted only to do it all over again the next day and the next.   

Most things that I wrote down were minor, small, even benign; my morning cup of coffee, that the kids were actually quiet during nap time, or that a friend had stopped by to say hello and made me feel like I was part of a bigger sphere than just my seemingly little one of being a mom. 

At first, numbering and writing down what I was grateful for felt mechanical, rote and almost like an assignment I couldn’t wait to finish. But then, after about number 654, I felt something shift inside of me. Being grateful was no longer a mindless exercise that I needed to complete. Being grateful was something that caused me to look up, look out, pause and acknowledge thankfulness to myself or to someone else.  

Being grateful slowed me down, in a good way. While homeschooling my kids I connected more with their hearts, gave them more praise and kissed their cheeks more often.

Around the dinner table I reveled in my family, my husband and his commitment to me and our kids.  

I kept writing things down that I was grateful for but not in order to reach 1,000. Being grateful has turned into a habit for me and writing is just how I communicate with myself.  

Being grateful keeps me aware of what and who is in front of me; the golden colors of fall, talking with a friend, feeling good while going for a run, a tasty meal, or conversing with my husband. 

Happiness and contentment follow on the heels of gratitude and patience with myself and others replaces ungracious demands. Gratitude does not take away all the woes of the world, but it can outweigh them, at least in my sphere. 

Why Bother?

Why bother being grateful for being grateful? Gratitude perpetuates gratitude and when our view shifts to seeing more and more things that we can be grateful for, we won’t be able to unsee what we can be grateful for. We’ll be inundated and possessed by gratitude. On my!

P.S.  I wrote the story of my journey to forgiveness for those who, like me, know they need to change, but are not quite sure where to start. You can find A Heart’s Journey To Forgiveness at Redemption Press and Amazon.