Everyday Gratitude…

I’ve noticed the trend has fired up on Facebook again this month (and already fizzled for some) where everyone posts something they are thankful or grateful for each day. While I like that idea I’ve always wondered why we really put a lot of focus on doing this once a year, and yes I get it, it’s Thanksgiving after all that. The point I’m trying to make is sometimes I think in our everyday lives we get all consumed with finding solutions to problems and moving onto the next project and forget to be thankful for what we’ve got, sometimes taking it all for granted. Take for instance, those that have considerably less possessions than you might jump at the opportunity to trade places with you not giving a hoot about whatever problems go with it just like I’m sure many of us would trade places with heirs to the Wal-Mart fortunes or any member of the royal family (what do they do for a living anyway?)…

For a long time my wife and I have prayed together at the conclusion of each day, laying out our requests before the father but only after we thank him for all of the blessings in our life. I think it’s important to tell the father that we are not taking anything for granted, even though I’m pretty sure he already knows where we stand. This is something that we’ve continued throughout the years of our marriage until Spencer came along and now that he’s here we’ve added him into the mix as well. I’m not trying to paint some Norman Rockwell family portrait for you guys because I’ll be the first to admit we are not perfect by any means, but it’s something we feel is important and it goes without saying that it happens every night in this house and will. I attribute that openness to God as one of the factors that has made our marriage strong, that and the fact that I love my woman and my kiddo w/ all of my energy.

Back to the point that I was trying to make, we give thanks to God everyday, so to me Thanksgiving is just another day, albeit with lots of food and family fun, but at the end of the day it’s just another day from where I sit because I give thanks everyday for even the smallest of things. Could I do a better job voicing my gratitude? Of course, I think we all could. Is it important to give thanks everyday? Well, to answer that I’m going to point to a website that a friend of mine, Mike Ortner, just launched called Grateful Buddy, on his opening page it says…

There is a lot of research out there that says having an attitude of gratitude is beneficial in many ways. Research shows it can improve your health, your attitude toward yourself and others, and your outlook on life. Heck….Just Google it if you don’t believe us! The other alternative is to be ungrateful. Know what’s weird? Most people actually don’t want to be around an ungrateful person. The bottom line is it’s your choice. You can choose to be grateful today! Right now! And Grateful Buddy is a tool to help you stay grateful! In fact, you can invite your buddies and keep each other accountable. So why wait?  Try Grateful Buddy now!

The entire premise for Mike’s project is that it’s somewhat of an accountability tool that enables you to share what you are grateful for with someone else that holds you accountable to sharing each day and for good reason. I signed up for the project once it was in beta and have been trying to make myself fit it into my daily routine every since but haven’t done it yet, I’m going to make myself do this in the near future because I think it’s important. Do I think it’s silly that people share everyday via Facebook statuses what they are grateful for? Absolutely not, I think it’s great, I just am not that structured so that approach is not for me, I chose to share my gratitude w/ the creator – to whom all things are possible. I don’t know what prompted me to share my thoughts on this, I guess because it’s been tucked away in the back of my mind most of the day for some reason (and unfortunately that can be a busy place to be sometimes).

Some of the things that I will thank the father for this evening are my family, my wonderful wife who manages this household with an iron fist but has the most delicate touch on certain matters when needed (let’s face it, keeping up with me can be challenging), and I’m also thankful for my son, who is perfect in every way I can imagine, even though he’s somewhat mischievous I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m also thankful for the people that God put into our lives to make a way for Spencer to be our son. It wasn’t an easy thing, hard decisions had to be made and a whole lot of trust and emotions had to be wagered. I’m also thankful for my parents who to this very day are strong influences on my life, I’m also thankful for my extended family (both living and deceased) who have had an impact on me over the years and molded me into what I am today (for better or worse). I’m also thankful for all of the favor and blessings God has entrusted me with related to business, and I’m also thankful for my two business partners who have turned more into brothers than partners over our long journey together. I’m also thankful for an amazing staff at Pleth that continues to rock on everyday making our company better and better (even though I’m not always around and I’m pretty hard to manage sometimes). I’m also very thankful for some of the amazing clients that God has put in our path, we’ve had the privilege to do some amazing work for some amazing people. I’m also thankful for an amazing church, NLC has literally been the backbone of our lives since we moved there a few years ago, the same can be said for our awesome life group that we have had the pleasure of leading each Wednesday in our home.  I’m also thankful for all of my friends, all 100,000,000 of you that for better or worse have stuck by this ignorant redneck through the years. I’m also very, very, very thankful for friends that are “spiritually bound” to Donna and I for various reasons, there aren’t as many of these, but that’s okay, the ones we have know who they are and know where they stand. Lastly, I’m also very thankful for the Holy Spirit and the vision it gives me throughout the day to see things differently or that I wouldn’t see at all. Constant companionship is pretty amazing.

Lastly, I would like to encourage each of you that happen upon this, be thankful for what you have no matter how small or insignificant it might be because it’s a gift, everyday on this Earth is a gift, live your life to the fullest, start as many fires as you can, shake every bush along the way! If you feel like you have a void in your life or not enough to be thankful for, I highly recommend checking out Grateful Buddy! It’s not a replacement, in my opinion for hitting your knees and thanking the almighty, but it’s a start!

In the meantime, enjoy this great song and listen to the lyrics, it’s one of my all-time favorites: