Gratefulness makes us happy

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. Brother David Steindl-Rast. Austrian-American


I read this the other day and it so spoke to me, I shared in our sales meeting this quote and how it had applied to my life concerning mother's passing. After mother first past, when I read her bible, I smelled it and was sad missing her, when I looked at her tea pots, I was sad missing her, when I saw a favorite shirt she loved to wear at Christmas it made me sad missing her, I thought I have got to some how pull through this part of grief, I can not stay her stuck, I need to move to the next stage, what ever that may be for me;) then I read this, it is gratefulness that makes us happy, it changed the way I looked at things, I became grateful for her bible, I saw it in a different light, I saw where she had written in it and enjoyed her studies, it made me happy to know she was so fulfilled in reading it, as I looked at the tea pots, I could remember some of the times she received some and how she loved them, it made me happy, I began to be grateful for the sweet memories I was having, my sadness turned into gratefulness and it brought me happiness inside my heart!

I shared that when we are just not happy it may be because we forget to be grateful, that this is a hard time of the year for a lot of people, there is more depression this time of the year then any other, if you have grateful thoughts you have no room for unhappy thoughts no negative thougths, so I encourage you to look at your thought pattern, if there are areas you are struggling in then see if looking at the situation with a grateful attitude will bring you happiness, help you re focus, we all have so many many things to be grateful for, most of us have so much more then we need, we have family, we are loved, we have friends, we can worship freely, some of us have good health, some of us have health problems, if you have health problems, then be grateful that it is not as bad as it could be, even in death, there is eternal life. Man oh Man our perspective has to change so we can be grateful in all things and happy.  What is true happiness?  If you do not know then make a decision to start being grateful.....you may find it!

I decided today would be a smile day, so I decided to began this day off with a smile, and pass it on to others, I was sincere in it, it is amazing how many people need a smile, so brush your teeth real good and have a smile day too, you will be smiling that you did~it may change your day and for sure will help someone else's day.......hugs and nite or should I say morning?