Before I headed out of town for a few days I needed to get the lawn mowed Sunday evening of 4th of July weekend.
As I always do I had my earbuds in and the music on as I went from strip to strip. As each song came on I found the lyrics reminding me of something from the weekend for which I was grateful.
Here are just a few examples:
Darius Rucker It Won’t Be Like This for Long This song gets me every time as I think about how grateful I am for my wife and two daughters and how those lyrics really did play out in our lives.
Uncle Kracker Smile How can you not feel good and grateful when you hear this song. This song really does just make you smile. It’s cooler than the flip side of the pillow.
Mike and the Mechanics The Living Years I am grateful to be alive. My father passed away when I was 14 and this song really makes me think. Based on family history I never expected to live to be 50. I never expected to see my daughter get married or to see my grandchildren. I am so grateful for the all the simple life experiences that my father and grandfather missed out on.
Even when the song didn’t take me somewhere mentally around gratitude I stayed in those walls as I mowed.
I thought about the book that my friend, John, recommended to me titled, “365 Thank Yous.” It’s about a man who was about as low as he could get in both his personal and professional life. He was challenged to begin to write thank you notes to people and it changed his life. I’ve only read the excerpt on Amazon but am looking forward to reading the whole thing.
My wife is friends with an immigrant woman and her husband and we were invited over to their home for dinner just before I mowed. I must admit that this simple act required me to muster up a bit of courage. I’m not the most adventurous eater and I wondered what we would be served and if I would be able to eat it.
We were served dishes from their native country and it was excellent. I was a bit hesitant at first but when you’re the courage guy you have to go for it.
During the meal they shared with us some of the truly life threatening experiences they had been through, particularly the husband as he was part of the war that took place in their homeland.
I am grateful to have grown up in a country that is free. I am grateful for the men and women who lived and died, and the others who were injured both physically and emotionally to allow me to have no comprehension of what they went through and to have absolutely no comprehension of what it’s like to live in a country like our immigrant friends.
Dennis Prager has been researching happiness for twenty-five years and he says this, “Gratitude is the mother of Happiness!”
Sometimes it takes courage to step away from the challenges we are facing to really look at the positive things we have going on in our lives.
What are you grateful for today? How can you become more grateful each and every day?
Psalm 118:24
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
