dailydatewithgod

One of the benefits of gratitude is its ability to put things in perspective.  As part of my daily practice i jot down or bring to mind things for which I am grateful.  On a day when my head is particularly loud I start with the smallest things.  I am grateful for my fingers and toes, the hair on my head, and the stop light that keeps cars from crashing into each other.  The impact of this is the ability to snowball into realizing how many things for which to be grateful.  When I make a list I try to come up with new things and I start by imagining what I would miss if I lost it.  My phone, the ability to hear, the way the sunset makes traffic a little bit more bearable, interesting questions asked by pod-casters, the ability to think of a new idea, and so on.  When we bring to mind what we would be losing in our lives if it were not there, we find a multitude of things to be grateful for. As challenging as certain conversations can be, if I did not have the opportunity to share my ideas and listen to others, I would be losing out on an opportunity to get to know another person.  If I did not have eyes to see I would be losing out on the beauty of watching two people greet each other in a warm hug. If I did not have fear about an experience I would be losing out on the sense of courage that I get from walking through it.  When we are cognizant of what we could be losing, we find all kinds of things to be grateful for.  I once heard that the most powerful prayer is two words, “Thank you.” God shows me daily that while there are things I want to oppose or run away from, I would be losing out on the opportunity to see the capacity and courage of my heart. Who wants that?