Living in Gratitude

Celebrating God’s goodness, even in the smallest blessings!

After my wedding, I started using a blessing box! I bought a box made of recycled paper and dried leaves. I personalized it… I designed it. This box contains all the things I feel grateful for, all the blessings I received (big and small I love them all!)

I want to continue being grateful and fully embrace an attitude of gratitude in all areas of my life. I believe this is the best way to combat negative emotions such as unhappiness, feelings of discontent and regrets.

“Gratitude creates happiness because it makes us feel full, complete; gratitude is the realization that we have everything we need, at least in this moment…”

The decision to live in a joyful expectation is one of the hardest decisions to uphold. Over time, we accumulate a lot of experiences – joyful and difficult ones. It helps a lot to carry on when we take a bigger view and remain fearless and hopeful amidst the difficult situations. Writing and knowing is far easier than doing and committing. But I am convinced… Gratitude is the key! Everything falls into place if we commit ourselves to it! If we focus our thoughts and energy on the things we are thankful for, we create an internal world of joy and hope. And without much effort, we are able to deal with adversities and feelings of fear and anger.

I want to say “thank you, Jesus” in my daily life. I have started it before and I feel the need to keep up with it. I want to believe that at this time in my life, I am threading a difficult path.

I haven’t realized this but gratitude consumes our energies in the most positive way. I believe that every person has experienced receiving a gift! A gift in its physical aspect for example (a birthday gift or anniversary gift) gives delight more than you can imagine! With the right attitude, we experience these joyous stages: (1) The anticipated feeling of receiving a gift, (2) the feeling of actually receiving the gift, (3) the gift itself and (4) the memory of having received it.

Now, what more when we are gifted with joyful moments, opportunities, loving concern, and shared memories? It’s definitely a lot more fantastic and fulfilling to go through those stages!

And so I shall work my way to develop a grateful heart and maintain thankfulness in my daily life for it is in doing so that I will be more focused on joy, optimism, faith and trust!

Tonette, living in gratitude!