Thankful & Grateful

Thankful:

adjective

1. feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative.

Gratitude:

noun

1.  the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful:

It is not a new concept for November to be a month of thankfulness and gratitude. I think it is commonly accepted that when Thanksgiving rolls around people start to pay attention to what they are thankful for. Some may dedicate the entire month to thankfulness; some just the actual holiday.

But, as I sit here I think : Why?

Why just November?

Why not every day?

We all, despite every situation life throws at us, have things to be immensely thankful for. So, why then do we just start getting extra thankful around Thanksgiving? What keeps us from daily gratitude? What keeps our words within us when we could extend a verbal thought of appreciation? Why don’t we all wake up daily with immediate thoughts of everything we are thankful for?

Can you imagine how our lives would change? Our families? Our communities? Our world?

What if instead of waking up in a hurry, waking up wanting, waking up lonely, waking up dissatisfied, we woke up thankful? It would be amazing if our very first thought was of sincere gratitude for our faith, our life, our families, our friends. What if we were thankful even for our struggles because they made us stronger? What if we were thankful for our suffering because it made us compassionate?

What if we were just plain thankful for it all?

Do you send up daily prayers of thankfulness? Do you verbally thank your spouse for helping with everyday routines? Do you thank your friends for their helping hands and their shoulders to cry on? Do you thank your children for their love?

I know that in mind heart and mind I am thankful. Numerous times a day I think : Thank you God for these people I get to love, even though they drive me crazy; Thank you husband for dedicating all your time to providing finically and emotionally for our family; Thank you kids for the lessons you teach me, for keeping me adventurous, and for making my heart grow threefold; Thank you girlfriends for the hours of support, laughs, and understanding; Thank you mom for teaching me how to be a parent and how to be strong and resilient; Thank you brother for making me the most proud sister.

All.

These.

Thoughts.

And, emotions.

Are just thoughts and emotions. True, deeply felt thoughts and emotions, mind you, but they aren’t verbalized. They seem to be kept tightly guarded.

I bet you God knows I love him, my husband know I appreciate him, my kids know my love and devotion, my friends feel my friendship, my mother knows I have learned so much from her, and my brother knows I am blessed he is my sibling.

My point is : Why aren’t I saying these things out loud?

Why isn’t my gratitude in bold and italic?

Maybe I am scared, maybe I am lazy, or maybe I am used to them assuming I feel these things.

But, I don’t want this. I don’t want it.

I want my thankfulness to be loud. I want it to be heard. I want everyone around me to know how blessed I am for the company I keep and the love they share.

So this November of gratitude, I want you, all of you, to know I am thankful beyond measure. I am blessed beyond belief. My heart is growing and it is in thankfulness.

I want to fall asleep each night thinking about something I am thankful for and I am hoping to wake up each morning with a thought of appreciation. I am placing a journal by my bed with hopes that I will write down one thing each morning that moves me to gratitude. It may just be one word, it may be a phrase, it may be a paragraph of emotion, who knows. All I know is that I want to live a life of thankfulness. I want to know that everything I am, everything I have is all I truly need. I want to tell everyone who touches my heart how thankful I am for them. I want to over use thank you in the most genuine and truest way possible. Every time I can say it to a friend or a stranger I want it to pass my lips in a smile. I want my attitude, love, and faith to be so abundant that I stop wanting, and I start appreciating. There is so much for me to be immensely thankful for. I want to own it, and I want to speak it. I want to share it.

And, you know what?

I want it to be for more than November. After all, it takes 28 days to create a new habit right? I am planning on gratitude being my next major goal. No more half way, in my head gratitude.

I want that bold and italic thankfulness that everyone around me feels.

So to start, I am thankful for my Bible Study ladies. They touch my life in ways I can not express, offer love that is moving, support that is unfailing, understanding in life’s teachable moments, and wisdom to God’s message. Ladies, thank you from the bottom of my heart for growing me more and more in God’s love and faithfulness.

/ jeans / similar sweater / adorable block heel mules /