This post was inspired by Adanna Steinacker, the amazing YouTuber of the David & Adanna YouTube channel in a recent vlog where she was basically counting her blessings and taking time to express her gratitude for all of the little, big things and major milestones in her life.
The vlog got me thinking about how easy it is for us to forget to be grateful for the things that we do have and have been blessed with and opt to focus on the things we don't have or have not yet received.
As I've expressed many times on this blog, I'm going through a lot of major life changes and with it comes the tendency to get frustrated by my circumstances as I'm sure it would be for anyone in their 30s having to essentially go back to the beginning to try and live life again (but also hopefully correctly this time around). I wanted to do this post differently to remind me and perhaps anyone else to always live in gratitude because let's face it, things could ALWAYS be worse.
- What am I grateful for?
Cliche as it sounds, I'm grateful for family. They came through for me when all my chips were down and made sure that depression did not set in because they know I have a history with slipping into it and never letting it show till it starts to unconsciously slip out threatening to send me over the edge.
- Why am I Grateful?
Like I said, things could most definitely be worse. I could have been stuck in an unhappy marriage, unable to be with the rest of my family in the U.S or given the privilege and opportunity to start over. I'm grateful because I had options I know that not many women in similar situations have.
- How can I express more gratitude?
The one thing I can think of is to never ever complain or whine about my circumstances. I may not have 90% of the things I want but I've absolutely got 100% of everything I need.
- How often should I express gratitude?
Every. Single. Day because tomorrow is neither promised nor guaranteed to any one of us.
- What am I most grateful for?
I can think of 1000 things but key among them are: that my heart was put back together through God's amazing grace, that my spirit though broken, once again found hope and that my mind did not send me to a much darker place than where it already was.
- Who/What inspires me to be grateful?
LIFE and being able to live it afresh inspires me to be honest.
- What typically causes me to act ungratefully?
Impatience, selfish desires and a lack of understanding of my purpose. These have been known to be my achilles heel in the past so I am conscious of not allowing history repeat itself again.
- Who deserves my gratitude?
God, My family and the small group of friends who have held me down through everything - in that specific order.
- Why is expressing gratitude so important ?
It's important because it keeps my focus on the things I know matter to me and that's everything from the gift of being able to love and forgive myself, to getting the gift of time to pinpoint my passion and work towards making an empire of it and even just to find my voice and learn to use it effectively through written word.
My Final Word On Living In Gratitude:
On Tuesday, I was watching The Real and the very first topic on their Girl Chat segment was 'what do you wish you had known before that you know now?' and things took a really emotional turn when Jeannie Mai started to respond in regards to her divorce from her ex-husband. Adrienne and Tamera also got pretty emotional and teary talking about accepting to marry a man she knew was the wrong one and accepting that she was different respectively. The entire conversation got me thnking about this post and how what I'm probably most grateful for truly is that God loved me enough to bring me out of a truly horrendous marriage that I knowingly walked into. I could really relate to what Adrienne said about knowing the man who had just proposed to her was not the right one but accepted his proposal anyway. Unlike her though, I went ahead to marry a man I knew was not the one for me, hoping that the marriage would be positive enough for me to bear (because I knew enough at the time that it wasn't really going to change him) but I was wrong! At first, I didn't believe God would answer my prayers to remove me from that situation because I ignored all the signs He had shown me prior but when He showed mercy and took me out of that unhappy place, I knew that it meant I would literally have to uproot my life and be re-planted in a new place physically and emotionally. I am thankful that God delivered me but even more importantly that I experienced what I did. Had I not gone through it, I probably would not be able to appreciate what real and true love looks like when I eventually find it again or have learned how to love myself enough to know what I now deserve.
What in your life are you grateful for? Do you think about things in the past that you wish never happened or have you learned to be grateful for those experiences? Or like the question posed on The Real, what do you know today that you wish you had known before?
Please share in the comments.
Always Loveđź’–
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