It has been a rich weekend. Friday night I took in a very good movie (Silver Linings Playbook – you must see it) with my beloved. Saturday held a long-anticipated lunch out with my life-long “girl-friends”. Sunday morning worship – I wasn’t preaching, Kevin was so I actually got to relax and enjoy the first service and then at the second service I was able to go out and have fun with the kids where we talked a lot about ‘God’s love”. The weekend ended with a great superbowl party. Okay, I admit, I am less about the superbowl and more about the party and it was fun. We left the party and walked out into a winter wonderland – it had snowed inches of fresh white brillance. It was a stellar weekend from start to finish.
The quote, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you it will be enough.”, attributed to Meister Echkart, says it all. I have decided to make 2013 all about gratitude. It is too easy to take the slippery slope to being critical and grumpy when in fact my life is filled with miracles and wonders. In one of the Christmas letters that came in December my friends ended their letter with this quote from Melodie Beattie, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” I have decided to make gratitude my credo for this year and when I stop and assess each day, each moment- I have much to be grateful for.
We too are grateful. Thank you for reminding us.
A few years back, Kay and I started playing what we have come to call ” the GRATTITUDE GAME”. Simple enough, we complete the sentence ” I am grateful for . We fill in the blank with whatever pops into our mind WITHOUT regard for whether we would judge it positive or negative. It is that simple.
For example:
Thank you God.
I am grateful for this sunny day.
I am grateful for this aching muscle.
I am grateful for couch I see.
I am grateful for this fireplace.
I am grateful for pavement paint.
I am grateful for this light switch.
I am grateful for my iPad.
I am grateful for this tired feeling I have.
I am grateful for this cold day.
I am grateful for the ice on my windshield.
I am grateful for the icy roads.
I am grateful for that tree.
I am grateful for that cheerful/grumpy cashier.
And so on and so forth.
It is important to NOT filter what you might say. Make no judgements as to what is acceptable or worthy of your grattitude. Acceptance is another form of non-resistance and non-resistance is a key to an energized life. It is not life’s trials that bring us down as much as it is our resistance to those trials and challenges which dissipates our life force in unproductive ways.
The grattitude game also encourages us and empowers us to see the good, the opportunity, that can come from all things in our life at any time, uner any circumstances … God is good, all the time.
My challenge has always been to remember to play the grattitude game. When I do, it has never failed to elevate me to an empowered state of mind. From this elevated state of mind I naturally attract that which serves highest and best good.
Even now, I often forget.
Thank you God. I am grateful for my forgetfulness. :0)
Richard