On gratitude

As Thanksgiving approaches, I've been thinking about ways to be more intentional about thankfulness.  I struggle with gratitude.  I tend to spend lots of time worrying or distracting myself, both of which are major roadblocks to leading a grateful life.  But I would love to be a more thankful person, so I'm trying to come up with good strategies to work towards that goal.  Here are ideas I've come up with (**warning:  this post has lots of "inspirational" pins, which i love, but i know some people find annoying, so my apologies if you are one of the people who gets annoyed by them**):

Living in the present:  Everyone else seems to love fall, but autumn gives me the blues.  I love the long, hot, lazy days of summer.  It makes me sad as the sun sets earlier, the air gets cooler, the leaves fall off the trees, and we slowly march towards winter.  BUT, i do like the things that everyone gets so excited about in September:  college football, Pumpkin Spice lattes, a perfect 70 degree day, and hay rack rides.  So, for me, autumn is always a good exercise in being grateful for the good things in your life at this moment rather than worrying about difficulties around the corner.

Gratitude journal - this is where I keep a list of all the big and little things that i'm grateful for, and try to add a few items each day.  I try to make these entries very specific and very personal to me, because if you're not careful, this can get to feel a little bit like a gift book you see while browsing in the checkout line at Barnes and Noble.  (You start writing things like, "I am grateful for the sound of crickets chirping at dusk.")  But it can also turn into a great record of your blessings.

Remembering the past and being grateful for progress- Right now, my life feels somewhat mundane - like every day is the same routine of snacks, park time, diapers, and naps.  But then I think back to the past few Septembers, and I realize what a blessing it is to have a mundane month. Three years ago, I was scheduled for 4 trials and set to go into labor any day - life was highly stressful.  Two years ago, we had just moved to Virginia, so we had to unpack and settle into a whole new life; meanwhile, a hurricane blew through town, and we had to fly Joshua across the country for a surgery and there were some difficulties with his oxygen situation - life was highly stressful.  Last year, Zoey had just been born and cried for hours every night, we had just moved houses, and Joshua broke his leg and was showing some red flags for autism - once again, life was highly stressful.  This September, there were no major health crises, no new house, new job, or new town, and no scary storms; life is not highly stressful.  I'm taking a moment to be grateful that mundane means the absence of extreme stress and difficulty.  

Reflecting on the great blessings of living in our particular time and place in history -- Last weekend, I had a nice little Saturday (pardon the Old School reference) - I took the kids to the park, drove over to the library to check out some books, and listened to "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" as I drove around running these errands.  What a pleasure to live in a country where we have enough abundance that things like parks and libraries are part of the basic government package; where people donate money to provide entertaining radio programming; and where I have the safety and leisure time to do these things.  

Spending time with people I'm grateful for - this can be people I know really well who make me feel understood and loved, or it can be people I don't know so well, but the way they conduct their life makes me feel grateful that I get to know them and inspired to be more like them.  

Reflecting on my faith -  The hope of the Gospel is the major reason I have to feel grateful, even when life is really hard.  I believe that God made me, that He is with me during hard times, that He has redeemed me, and that He is giving me an eternal hope.  And it's impossible not to feel grateful when I really internalize this.  

What would you add to this list?