Today as I was going about my daily life I was thinking about how blessed I am, how grateful I am for my life. I found myself going through a list of all the wonderful things in my life; the beautiful mountains behind our home that I can hike, each of my sons - all three are different and each of them is a great person, how my husband John brought me a bouquet of flowers this weekend and then left a single bud in a small heart shaped vase on the windowsill, how much I enjoy my time in the bible, the interesting books I'm reading right now, how much I'm enjoying our puppy that we got from the pound last year, the list went on and on.
Then I thought about how, if someone were to describe me, I might not sound so great. I'm in my third marriage, I'm overweight, I'm on the shy side. As I thought about it, I most obviously have made plenty of life mistakes and I'm certainly not one of those people who would say I'd never change a thing because, given the chance, there are things I would do differently. But I'm grateful for my life today. I can see the grace and mercy and goodness of God.
But I also realized it's all about where I choose to focus. I can look at the mistakes I've made and learn from them and move on or can stay stuck. I can choose where I let my mind stay. I can choose to develop a lifestyle of Gratitude. I'm reminded of the verse in Philippians 4:8:
You'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
This is a quote from The Message paraphrase and I really appreciate the way it reads. I want this to be how I life my life.
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