Grateful and Thankful

I was just texting my younger son and the subject of being grateful no matter what came up. It dawned on me that although I thank Abba (Father God) each day for just being able to wake up to face another day is truly a gift after some of the things I have been through. I have been doing more complaining than speaking thankfulness for sure for a while now. My family is telling me so pretty much every day, "stop complaining". I absolutely got a good taste of the complaint train with a high school friend of mine I reconnected with. It was literally nonstop pages of text complaints all hours of the day and night. One time it was 3 am and she couldn't sleep so she began texting me assuming my phone was on silent...it should have been I thought. With my grandson having life threatening seizures I don't silence my phone at night anymore. I turn off notifications now but leave my ringer up. 

Anyway, it dawned on me that we both needed to start a thankfulness list every day no matter what kind of day we were having. I told her even if she is in some sort of pain, because we both have chronic pain issues, that we could find at least one thing to thank God for. I thank God for being able to wake up and face each new day; I am able to walk, see, hear, taste, breathe a full breath, have food to eat, a roof over my head, children and grandchildren that love me, health care, very caring doctors, a few good friends, and a bed to sleep in. I know that sounds not so exciting, but it is so much more than many people have. I am very grateful  to be able to have my whole family within 5 minutes of me and so many other things. When you stop and think of all you have to be grateful for instead of complaining about your issues it eventually will change your outlook on life. My younger son tells me to be careful which wolf I feed and he is speaking of the wolf of negativity and woes or the wolf of positivity and goodness. I prefer to feed the good wolf. The wolf of negativity has become quite obese. I have learned, as well, that you can keep the list in your head or on a notepad on your phone, but actually writing it down on a piece of paper, maybe in a journal, that it reinforces the thought if your brain "sees" it, it will be retained longer. When I was in college there was a study that proved reading actual paper books instead of on a Kindle or your phone helped your brain to actually retain the information longer. For the life of me I can't remember who did the study, but I have found, at least for me, that it rings true so, I choose to write things down on paper in a notebook or journal. I suppose the point I am trying to make in my roundabout way is that we all have so much to be thankful for even if it feels like we are in a dark pit with absolutely nothing to be grateful for. 

It is even in the Bible that Abba does not like complaining. In Philippians 2:14-15, complaining is described as grumbling and disputing. To help us to overcome our habit of complaining we should think about the scripture in Psalms 105:5 that tells us to give thanks in all circumstances. If we are giving thanks, it doesn't leave room for complaining. When you complain you are showing that you don't trust God and that you are discontent with your lot in life, so to speak. We are to lay our cares and problems at the feet of Abba as He is our provider and takes good care of His children. Complaining is detrimental to your peace, joy and patience. It makes you discontent, sad, anxious, grumpy and hard to get along with to mention a few things. I would much rather be around a positive and uplifting person so, I am trying very hard to not complain about anything. Sometimes I am not complaining, but telling someone what is going on with me or maybe seeking just a tiny bit of sympathy. It gets misconstrued as complaining or attention seeking so I just give up. This world has become so callous, self-centered and selfish that no one cares about anything that another person is going through. As long as it doesn't affect them, they could care less and don't even want to hear about it. The problem with that is some day they will need help or have an issue they need to discuss with someone to figure out the correct course of action, as no one is completely self-sufficient, and the ones they have been pushing away or show no concern for will most likely be the ones who would have been willing to help or advise them. 

It seems like the whole world is made up of complainers so, if you do the same thing how are you going to stand out as a believer? The Bible tells us that Abba, our Father in heaven, is our provider of everything we need (Philippians 4:19) and He always works things out for our good if we will let him (Romans 8:28). I am starting my thankfulness journal today and will continue to write in it every day instead of complaining. I will praise God for all that He has done in my life as well. Admittedly some days it may take me a minute to come up with things to be thankful for and some days I don't feel like praising, but those are they days I need to the most. It truly gets your mind on God, on good things, off of yourself and your problems, and no complaining because you are thankful. It really does create a positive mindset and that we all need every day, especially with all the negativity in this world trying to smother us each day.