Getting Real on Grateful Heart Monday

typically, for grateful heart monday, i list a few little things that i'm grateful for.  it's a good practice to get into and it has proven to be a great start to my week, again and again.  seriouslyguys, i've never stuck with a link-up for this long.  except maybe when i did the sunday creative back in college.

but can i just be really, really real with you today?  sometimes, gratitude is hard. 

i wrote this post back in may and last night, while i began drafting what you're reading right now, i went and dug it up.  it's one of those pieces of writing that i'm particularly proud of, because it was all god, you know?

yesterday was a sort of rough day in some ways...my dad woke up not feeling great, and that's always a bummer.  and on days like that, it can be hard to find things to be grateful for in the muck of the worry and pleading with god to just make him ok.  (told you i was getting real)

but as i thought about what i wanted to write about today, i was reminded of a little quote, and what i wrote back in may about living the grateful life.  so instead of trying to eloquently restate something i've already written when frankly, i just don't think i know how to say it better than i already have, i'm going to quote myself, quoting ann voskamp.  hope you don't mind.  

living with a constant sense of gratitude is one of the hardest things i can think of.  in a world that loves to complain, loves to belittle, loves to make things less than what they are, it can be difficult to find joy in the little things; in a parking space, your favorite coffee creamer being on sale, a passing rain shower.

and that's the problem, i think.  our world so often drowns out the gratitude.  ann voskamp once wrote that "our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in god and what he gives.  we hunger for something more, something other."

that so adequately describes our human nature, doesn't it?  from the beginning, when adam & eve took the fruit, they did so because they were led to believe that there was something more.  and we all must live with the weight of that decision, always managing the tension between what the world wants us to believe and what our god has for us.

but the thing, friends, is that the simple act of gratitude, of finding joy in the simplistic, in the everyday, in the seemingly ordinary, can do wonders in the way of managing that tension.  and it's not just being happy or thankful for what you find, but knowing who to thank. 

so i hope, on this monday, that you not only take time to be thankful for the little things, but that you also thank the one who provides, who conquers, who sustains.  

what are you thankful for today?