Gratitude List

I wheeled my way to my car using my walker for support, looking forward to having lunch with a friend.  My car wouldn't start. A dead battery. Oh great I thought, "Everything is always going wrong." I called my friend who came by and picked me up. On the ride to the restaurant I complained about how hard my life was. Unfortunately, my whining continued through the meal and beyond. My friend shared her tale of woes as well. Just then a thought came to me, I mentioned to her, "Don't you like it when your son thanks you for what you do for him? I know I always like it when my son appreciates what I do for him. I bet God likes it when I thank Him for all he does instead of me always whining." My friend gasped and said, "You are right. We need to start a gratitude journal and write down a list of things we are thankful for. Then every other week we will meet and share our list, this way we will keep each other accountable." "Great idea ", I responded.
That night as I was exercising both my knees gave out on me and I fell. I twisted my ankle and think I broke my big toe. I was crying out in pain and pleading with God to show favor on me. I have had so many set backs these last 2 years that I just didn't have any more strength to deal with more. I cried my self to sleep that night. "Gratitude Smatitude," I said. I took time out that weekend and  rested but, felt so discouraged. My foot was throbbing and my toes were bruised. I couldn't even get a shoe on. Luckily I found a pr of shoes that were a size larger and  painfully slipped my foot through. A few days later my son came by to change out my battery. He hooked up the battery to a charger and while he went to plug it in the charger fell on top of my water heater. Water started gushing out all over my garage. I couldn't even help my son as my walker was in back of the car and I was sitting behind the wheel. My son was trying to hold onto the broken pipe and stop the flow of water. I sat there beeping my horn and yelling for my husband to come and help. I then text a friend asking for prayer as chaos had developed. $100.00 later and a clean garage floor I was able to get my car out of the garage and my son took it to get a new battery. Later that night I pulled out my gratitude journal. I started laughing as I wrote my words of appreciation down. "I am thankful I was able to get up off the floor after I fell", "I am grateful that my foot is not broken and is healing.", "I am glad my son was ok and no one got hurt, also that I had the money to pay the plumber and get a new battery." "Oh, and I now have a cleaner garage floor." As the days went by I started to be thankful for the little things that I always took for granted. "Thank you, God, for a good cup of coffee." , " I am thankful for a beautiful home to be sheltered in from the storm blowing outside." , "Thank you for air conditioning.", "I am thankful Lord, for a husband that makes me breakfast on his days off", "Thank you God for friends who love and care about me." I went to the movies with friends the other day and had to use a wheelchair as walking is becoming harder especially with a broken toe. Just as I arrived at the theater it started to drizzle. Thankfully,  my friends were already there and quickly got the wheelchair out and ran me into the theater. Just as we entered the ticket booth the heavens opened and it rained hard. Later that night I was so thankful to get into the theater dry and safe. I was also grateful for my friends and a good laugh. There's a proverb that says "If you look for good you will find God's favor, if you look for evil you will find God's curse" (Prov 11:27 TLB). Blessings verses cursings. It has become a habit for me to think of all that is wrong. It takes self control and training to look for the blessing.  I can always find the good in things if I look hard enough. Galatians 5:22-23 shares about the fruit given to us by the Holy Spirit. If I am showing ; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control then I am living in God's favor. But if I am living with complaints, criticisms, hatred, jealousy ect (Gal 5:19-21) then I am living under God's curse. Scary isn't it? I tell you my human nature is to complain. I am working hard on finding thankfulness and gratitude in my everyday life. I have also noticed that as I focus more on  the blessing I am  laughing more and not taking everything so seriously. I have a long way to go in this area. As the 12 step program's state, "Awareness is the first step to recovery." I want my thankfulness to be such a part of me that it will eventually come naturally. I thank God for all who read this. May the Lord shower you with favor today as you take the time out to give Him thanks. I think I'll step out of the complaint's line and start standing on the gratitude line. Will you join me?