it's Hard to Complain When You're Counting Your Blessings

There are many times when I'm tempted to complain. The very moment when something doesn't happen to my liking I want to open my mouth and curse the situation. If the barista doesn't sweeten my coffee the way I take it or if the woman who cleans for me misses a speck of dirt, I want to fuss without taking the time to realize how blessed I am to be in a position to be able to afford to pay someone to do the things I don't want to do.

As I write this I am watching my youngest child sleeping. We had a health scare and thankfully she is going to be just fine. But never again will I complain about the high cost of health insurance because when we needed a physician's care we received it. I can't imagine the pain of watching a child suffer because you don't have access to help. I will also never complain about my daughter's messy bedroom or wet towels on the floor because if something were to happen to her I would have done anything, paid anything, to have her storm through our house leaving her belongings in her wake.

I used to tell my children everyday is like Christmas morning to God. He looks at our attitude as we unwrap our daily gifts: good health, jobs, family, friends, transportation, clean water and healthy food, fresh air, the list goes on. If we fail to be thankful for these gifts, then He won't bring out the larger gifts of abundance and prosperity. Why should He show us the big box that's hidden in the closet if we aren't thankful for the little one that's beneath the tree?

It is never my intention to preach. I only want to work out the things that I encounter in my own life and I hope that maybe I can hep someone else along the way. From this moment forward I am promising myself that I will not complain about anything ever again and I'm also putting you on notice. If you complain about anything in my presence I am going to call you on it because complaining is contagious. So no more complaining about the boss, the weather, the amount of work we have to do. Instead we are going to give thanks for all things, great and small.

In my Gratitude Journal I wrote this morning that I am grateful for the following:

1. Family and friends who love me.

2. A healthy body and a sound mind.

3. A job that allows me to support myself and my family.

4. Clean water, fresh air, and healthy food.

5. A comfortable home and reliable transportation

If I never receive another thing in my life, I am already extremely blessed and for that I am grateful. I hope you will take a moment to write out the things that you are thankful for and if you feel  the need to complain, I encourage you to focus instead on the list you created.

  

It's a Wonderful Life

Each Christmas Eve my cousin Marvin, my children, my husband, my mother and I put on our pajamas, eat pizza and the cookies we baked earlier in the day and watch movies until the wee hours of the morning. It never fails that Marvin will pick a movie that is so bad that it becomes funny and instead of watching the movie we laugh at all of the reasons it's so horrible. This Christmas Eve was bittersweet. Although Matt's girlfriend Devin and my step-daughter Tai Lynne were present, my mother was not able to travel.

Before going to sleep, we always read the children's classic The Crippled Lamb, a selection from the book of Matthew, feed the reindeer- although my children are all nearly grown- and leave cookies and milk for Santa. And as sure as the sun rises on Christmas morning, Santa will have sipped the milk and left crumbs on the table.

When Lyndsay was younger she would wake us up at an ungodly hour on Christmas morning and we would all walk bleary- eyed to the tree as she scurried beneath to see what Santa had brought her for being such a good girl. Now that she's almost 16 (and more sour than sweet most of the time) she wakes up much later in the morning, but since she is the baby of the family we let her be the first to make the Christmas morning discovery.

My husband and I have been up for hours waiting to hear movement. He's reading the paper as I write this and we both know it will be awhile because they stayed up until 4 am watching movies.

In a few hours there will be Christmas paper and bows scattered everywhere and the house I so carefully cleaned will look like a battle zone. Christmas music will be playing in the background and the kids will be enjoying their gifts while I sit in my favorite chair sipping tea and staring in amazement at how blessed I am. Lynn will begin preparing the lobster-stuffed grouper and then we will sit down as a family at the dinner table and once again give thanks to such a wonderfully amazing God.

But his holiday is not without sadness. At the moment Granddaddy is ill having given up his will to live. There have been several deaths that have shaken us and for too long we have had to deal with the evil motives of evil people.  We have had to tighten our belts financially and we have witnessed a world that gets crazier and scarier by the moment.

Just a moment ago Simba, our dog, threw up on the carpet and I remembered that I forgot to wrap a gift, but no matter how imperfect my life is, how silly our family traditions, or how wretched the world may seem, it truly is a wonderful life.