Being Thankful - Day Twenty-Nine

Tonight, I'm grateful for this past month of focused gratitude.  Knowing each day that I needed to post something also made me realize that it was hard to pick just one thing.  It took a month, it seemed, to just get through the "big stuff".  Yeah, I broke down and expressed gratefulness for rotisserie chicken one day.  I did.  But, for the most past, I realized that the "big stuff" encompasses SO much of my life.  I have an abundance of gifts that, truly, a lot of us have.  But until you get to thinking about them, it's easy to forget how important, and how many, they all are.

Today has been one of those days where I've felt a lot of stress coming at me from a number of places, and I've felt a bit out of sorts.  I can't really explain it.  Maybe it's as simple as I need a quiet, peaceful day at home, and I don't see one of those on the horizon for awhile.  Maybe I'm feeling the typical stress of the "holiday season", where all the multitudes feel the pressure to put on an event to celebrate the Season, regardless of the fact that we all have SO many of these events to go to already.  Maybe I'm just cranky today.  WhatEVER the problem is, as I sit here and type, I realize that our gratitude is necessary when we're feeling good, when we're feeling cranky, when we're feeling downtrodden.  Even when we're feeling lost.  The hardest time to feel gratitude can be when the world gets all over and up in your business.  Yet, that's the time when we have to figure out how to let go of the stuff that is pestering our peace and focus on the Giver of the peace in the first place.  It's not easy, and the Lord never promised an easy path.  In fact, He pretty much assured us of difficulties.

Yet, we are to praise Him continually for He is good.  And we should be grateful for all the blessings we have at all times.  Good, the actual living entity that is the opposite of bad, is what God is.  If there is good in this world, then it is because God is there.  So, even on a weirdo day like I'm having today, I think of the good things, the blessings, in my life, and I thank Him.  I praise Him.  I remember that this life isn't about me in the first place.

And I will go to bed and shake this off (hopefully) and will rise to remember from Whom this past month's worth of blessings came.  Lord willing, this little pep talk to myself will do some good.  :-)