Gratitude: A Daily Practice To Change Your Life.

Hey Mamas,

I want to share with you a new practice that I started about 4 weeks ago that has done wonders for my mood and my outlook on my life.

I've started a daily gratitude practice.

Each morning I write down five things I'm grateful for. I try to be really specific. I don't just write 'my husband'. I write 'I'm grateful for my husband's kindness and how we were able to spend time together watching TV last night'. I write 'I'm grateful for this coffee, it's hot and warm and makes me feel great'. 

This week I've been writing things about my house. This house. Let's just be honest - there are many things I could focus on about this house that ARE NOT SO GREAT. One of the main things being that we have horrible plumbing and often have pipes back up and have to call a plumber. This happened again this week. I could choose to focus on the bad, the hard stuff, the stuff not going so well. Or I can focus on the good. Shifting your perspective can shift your mood. It can take you from feeling down, stressed, and frustrated to feeling happy, fulfilled, and grateful.

You may be thinking - what is there to be grateful for in a house that leaks? 

Well, I've got 5 things.

1. I'm grateful that we have a house with enough room for our family where we can eat, cook our own meals, play, and live together.

2. I'm grateful we have enough money to call the plumber and have the drain unblocked, again.

3. I'm grateful we live in a neighborhood by a park where we can walk and play each day.

4. I'm grateful we have a big backyard for our dogs and my son to play. It's also been really nice to have friends over to social distance and talk at night with COVID.

5. I'm grateful for these repeated leaks and how they have strengthened our family as we've seen God come through again and again financially when we didn't know what we were going to do or how we were going to pay for the repairs. Just this month we had a bill reduced by $127 that was completely unexpected. Look at God. 

I have A LOT to be grateful for. When I think about these things, it makes the hard stuff fade a little bit. Yeah, it still sucks we have a leak. Yeah, it sucks I can't do laundry until after the plumber comes. But - another gratitude - I'm so thankful that we have enough clothes that we won't run out of clean clothes this week :)