Here’s the truth about Thankfulness…it’s hard. 

It is. 

It’s easy to be Thankful when things are going right, when bills are paid, and children are healthy, when marriage is easy, and jobs are fulfilling…

But life is hard. It’s hard to be grateful when you are bombarded with unappreciative, entitled, inconsiderate, negative, and self righteous actions of others. It’s infiltrates homes and marriages, lives and livelihoods. Suddenly real life happens… a kid is sick, a spouse in unemployed, when death becomes a reality and grief becomes as normal as breathing.

One of my least favorite quotes, is that God will only give us as much as we can handle. I think that’s absolute baloney. Serious bullshit. Many times I feel like God has allowed me way more than I could ever handle, but has been there. He’s there. And I know I’m not alone, but it’s not easy. It’s painful and I’ve many times made it out of things with scars and hurts that have lasted for years to come.

 My anxiety, which held camp in my head most of my life- is a perfect example. I couldn’t travel for a period, leave my kids, or sleep for a long time. It encompassed every decision I made, or failed to make. It ruined friendships and made chaos in my marriage. 

So where does Thankfulness come in? I think the first part is recognizing that being thankful for the littlest things in the midst of real life are an incredible gift.  It’s acknowledging the beauty of the everyday blessing. Today I helped my Grandma into a car and froze the action of buckling her in and kissing her soft cheek in my memory. It’s stuffing celery with my sister Hannah who I hurt when I missed her graduation because my anxiety was all encompassing, but who forgave me. It’s looking at my kids and seeing the beautiful people they are becoming…even on the days where shadows cross their eyes and where they feel heavy with the weight of an ungrateful world. It’s holding my sister who has been transformed and hearing her laugh. It is in our Marta who moved in with us, but has become family. It’s in friends who texted me before I was even awake, because they love me. It’s in the blessing that I married a really good man, he is far better than any person I could’ve ever dreamed of sharing my life with. And I owe a lot to my mom who taught me to find gratefulness on the hard days. 

Today people will take beautiful pictures, and write words about why they are grateful. I appreciate that. 

And I too, am grateful for so many things…

But gratefulness is a choice. Because it is easy to focus on the hard real things. It’s easy to let them wear holes in our heart and in our happiness. It’s almost easier to rationalize and lose sight of the power of forgiveness. 

Being thankful is easy to complicate- because as humans we over look what’s right in front of us, and overcomplicate this most simple of actions. The act of being grateful and thankful for the every day blessings in the middle of every day life. 

In the past few weeks I’ve really tried to put the action of gratefulness into my every day…telling people I love them, and telling them why I am grateful for their lives.  It’s such a simple act, but like I said before thankfulness can be hard. But it’s worth it. 

Not just today. But every single day. 

God doesn’t give us only what we can handle…Life gives us the good and the bad, and the real. But God never leaves. He carries us, he holds our hands, and he finds us on the darkest days. We are never alone in this world. 

Sometimes we just forget to see what’s right in front of us. 

Gratefulness is not meant to be over complicated. It’s meant to be seen. To be lived.

To God be the Glory. 

  

  
Thank you for reading my Blog the last 11 months. ❤️