21 Days of Gratitude.

Sometimes life just sucks.

I mean... It REALLY sucks.

Some people can take all that suck, and make something kinda alright and less suckish out of it.

I've never really been that person.

If you glance through the first few days on my social media page (or if you are one of the few close family members or friends who I call to vent to often), you can't help noticing there is always some sort of drama in my life. By "drama" I mean almost driving off to Walmart without one of my kids, or leaving the car on overnight and having to flag down a poor dude on his way to work in his dress blues to give me jump start. And although my posts may seem light hearted and silly, ninety percent of the time I will let these events really get me flustered.

Today we had a reintegration brief, and a speaker came and spoke to us about being grateful. Ya know, "have an attitude of gratitude" and all that mumbo jumbo, well today she shared something from an essay written by Robert Emmons titled, "How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times." In the essay Robert says, "It's easy to feel grateful when life is good, but when disaster strikes, gratitude is worth the effort."

If you stop for a moment and really think about it, this statement has SO MUCH to offer. Anyone can be joyful when things are going their way, and it's not until we go through hard times that we appreciate the simple things. For example, my car has started every single time I've turned it on for the last 2 years, but it wasn't until I got in the car after having it jump started that I truly appreciated the soft purring of the engine.

Along with the obvious meat that statement had to offer, there was one thing that I feel a lot of people overlook. The most weighted word in that statement is EFFORT. Gratitude takes EFFORT. Being a positive person takes EFFORT. Like I said, ninety percent of the time my immediate response to these unfortunate events is to get frustrated and find the nearest liquor store, but I have to make a constant, INTENTIONAL EFFORT to be grateful instead for the sucky parts of life.

Now, lets be real here. Was I FEELING thankful that my car died and I had to get a jump start with 3 kids buckled in and it was starting to rain? HELL NO! BUT, I did learn that I have wonderful friends, and wonderful neighbors who are willing to go out of their way to help me when I need it and I was so thankful for that! What a great perspective to give this irritating event! Instead of drinking my sorrows of the day away in red wine, I am going to bed tonight with my heart full. All this has really made me wonder, what other annoying, frustrating, or even flat out traumatic things have I let drag me down and overcast my life that I can CHOOSE instead to look at through gracious eyes?

I have let the twists and turns of life get me down too long. I have let my imperfect parenting, wifey-ing, and fitness-ing create an overcast of disappointment over my life of too long, and I'm ready to make a change! I am going to start a challenge for myself and this blog every single night for 21 nights, to share a list of 3 things that I am thankful for that happened during that day, and why I am thankful for them. Sometimes, (like today) I am going to have to really scrape for things to be happy about, but I am hoping this will help me get into a more positive frame of mind for when my husband gets home and we go through this difficult stage of reintegration. (A topic for another blog post.)

Life is full of suck and it always will be, but I am done venting about my misfortunes to friends, family, and on social media. Now it's time I gain a new perspective on it. A more gracious perspective.

I will also be doing this exercise with my children before bed each night to help them have a more positive outlook on their misfortunes. If there is enough interest, I will gladly start up a Facebook group for those wanting to participate in the challenge.