Yesterday, President Russell M. Nelson challenged members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use social media and the hashtag, #givethanks, for the next 7 days to enlist the healing power of gratitude in behalf of the world and ourselves. As I have thought about this plea, I have decided that my previous experiment with an Attitude of Gratitude, where I blogged for 560+ days about gratitude needed to be resurrected. I had allowed life to get in my way, stop my progress, and to believe the lie that I didn’t have time, nor did I need this exercise in my life any more. The prophet of the Lord has most definitely called me to repentance with this request to spread the healing power of gratitude across the world. So… today I start over.
Today I begin An Attitude of Gratitude 2.0. My hope is to write everyday about the blessings in my life that I experienced throughout the day. My goal will be every day for a year. Then, I will re-evaluate where I should go from there.
The thing is… I have first hand experience with the healing power of gratitude. A daily practice of gratitude expressed changes lives! Practicing an attitude of gratitude can change the way you view the world, the way you view yourself, the way you view your relationships, the way you view life. This practice of an attitude of gratitude helps to increase happiness and the feeling of satisfaction.
“Happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have”
-Frederick Keonig
Practicing gratitude is more than saying “thank you.” Gratitude is a feeling… feeling truly grateful for all that you have no matter how big or how small.
Today I am grateful for family. Today I cleaned out the attic… so we could fit in more stuff for children as we are often the storage unit for the stuff the kids are collecting. Anyway, seeing some of the little toys, clothes they wore as kids, baby blankets and other treasures caused me to reflect on the good memories. It was a little bitter sweet. I miss the days when they were all little. I actually miss homeschooling and the opportunity I had to spend every day with them. Sure. It was stressful on many days, but there are days now that I long for those moments back. I long for the opportunity to hug them and to read book with them. I mourn that I made mistakes and I can’t fix them. But mostly, I am grateful I got to be the mom to 5 amazing little people. I hope they know that I love them to the moon and back. I hope they know that I really did give them the best of me… and I’d do it again and again. In the list of the top 10 blessing I have been given, being their mom is right near the top.
Today I am also grateful for agency… the ability to choose. Yesterday I had a great conversation with my brother. We talked about how blessed we are that our parents taught us to value this most amazing gift – the gift of agency. We not agree on where this gift came from – I believe it is gift from God and my brother is not religious – but we both agree that we are blessed because our parents believed in and helped us to embrace the gift of agency. I am grateful for agency. I am grateful commandments and laws, knowledge, and the ability to choose that allows me to fully practice agency.
What are you grateful for on this beautiful day.
Resigning as the General Manager of the Universe 