Gratefulness - The Great Heart Changer

I've said more than once it's been a tough year or so in parentland.  Nothing profoundly earth-shattering; just time catching up with me and coming to terms with my own sinful nature.  It's all very humbling (and frustrating, enraging, annoying, and, and, etc.).

I've found the Podcast!  Yes, instead of getting the new Nano that comes with an FM Tuner (for the news), I'm trying NOT to go out and buy the latest and greatest; to be satisified with what I've got.  Enter the Podcast. 

My favorite so far has been the stuff from Focus on the Family. Usually 10 minutes podcasts on a wide variety of family and parenting subjects.  I wasn't crazy about having to stop every 10 minutes while running to go to the next one (anyone know how to move through them without having to select the next one?), but they've been "that good" that it's been worth it.

Gratefulness was one of the recent topics and it hit me where I needed it this week.  At first it was, "I need to make sure my little people 'get' grateful".  Nice, huh?  Oh, yeah and maybe I should get on that train to.  So, I pondered some more.  I went to bed focused on grateful; despite being a little sad and very tired. 

Grateful for friends and family who are constantly giving me grace and understanding.  Grateful for a God who walks alongside of me even when things are so very hard.

I woke up this morning with "grateful" on the brain.  It wasn't easy.   It was morning afterall, and followed 6 intermitten hours of sleep.  It was a choice.

I chose to say thank you to my people for remembering and doing their chores.  I apologized for often asking for more instead of thanking them for what they do. 

Getting out the door to school can be nightmare and sadly, the nightmare can become a pattern. 

Today, we got out the door to school in a different way because mama's heart was in a different place.  Because by the shear Grace of God and making a choice, chose to be grateful instead of otherwise.

Gratefulness - The Great Heart Changer.....

Love to you,

Erin.