Gratitude

Gratitude.

"The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness."

I think gratitude might be one of the easiest virtues of all if we just would remember to do it. 

It's so easy to take for granted all the many blessings in our lives. Few of us have experienced true poverty, and our comfortable life may get in the way of gratitude.

Sometimes we find ourselves comparing what we have with others, and feeling like we don't have enough. Sometimes when the newness wears off we just go about our daily life forgetting how fortunate we really are. 

Maybe keeping a gratitude journal or a blessings jar could be a tangible way to embrace gratitude. With our young children we could make a construction paper chain adding to it each day something we are grateful for. 

In our prayer life offering up praise and thanksgiving helps us to take the focus off everything we don't have. I wish I could say that I am stellar in my gratitude, but I am committed to keeping this virtue front and center. 

A good place to start with gratitude is looking for all the small, unassuming ways that we are blessed. 

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more..."

Melody Beattie