January 13th - Attitude of Gratitude

Sarah entitled today 

"Gratitude: Awakening the Heart"

She started by explaining a vicious cycle with which I am all too familiar with, and I'm sure many of you are too. "The more I focused on lack and on what I couldn't have, the more depressed I became. The more depressed I became, the more I focused on lack." Have you ever done that before? Have you ever been sad and thought, well let's just go shopping, that'll make me feel better. Or have you ever been so focused on what you can't have that you couldn't appreciate what you did have? 

I had to check myself today. I had a moment where I was focusing on what I lacked, instead of what I had.

Here was my train of thought: 

***

This is one of our living room walls. 

One of my friends was selling a dvd bookshelf, which is actually exactly what I wanted! And it fits perfectly underneath the tv. So when you find something that's perfect, and much cheaper than buying anything new, you buy it (if you have the money in the budget, which I did). 

Now here I am, I would love to put the dvd bookshelf up and load up the dvd's that are hiding in the garage! But I can't block the toys. We want to cover that space and gain entry to the under the stairs space through the coat closet that's on the left (kinda like this, and this but deeper). Then where the changing table is we'll make a Harry Potter door to store all the downstairs toys, and when the kids grow up we'll put the board games there (something simple like this, just to use the last bit of space that we won't be able to get too from the closet side). 

But this project is at least 6 months away, if not a year. The cupboard under the stairs will have to wait until we don't need anymore diapers changed (which is only like a year away, can I get a what what?)! 

So here I am, finding myself ungrateful because it can't be done right now, instead of grateful that I found one piece of the project that's perfect and super cheap. I slapped my forehead and thought "unbelievable", and turned my attitude around real quick. 

***

Sarah said "how could I expect more...when I didn't appreciate what I already had?"

Ain't that the truth.

She talked about how she started to count her many blessings and made an "inventory of [her] lives assets", and saw very rich she was. She also realized that "if you give your very best, the very best will come back to you."


She also noted on something that hits close to home as a stay at home mom with no paycheck for the work that I do. 
"I came to an inner awareness that my personal net worth couldn't possibly be determined by the size of my checking account balance."


She also talked about the power that gratitude has. The only difference in her life was that she opened her eyes and began to appreciate everything, and all of a sudden instead of feeling a sense of lack she felt a sense of abundance.

That's all I did today, I just kept opening my eyes so I could see how much I had to be grateful for...and it turned my day around.

I implore you, please go read President Thomas S. Monson's talk, 

The Divine Gift of Gratitude. 

"My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." -TSM