The Gratitude Experiment

"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."

-Thomas S. Monson

This past week I have had much to think about: my past, my present, my future. I have spent hours each day not only counting, but rather dissecting my blessings. I have tried so very earnestly to live with gratitude and without murmuring. And I have failed.


Discovery: I am a whiner.


I have been caught up in the same snares as everyone else. Wicked, entangling snares such as time restraints and financial stresses and personal wants. Those pressures are readily rampant and so very real that oftentimes they consume me and I find myself being impatient or feeling inadequate, thus resulting in dissatisfaction and ingratitude.


And I feel ashamed.


I look back and I realize that an entire week has passed me by and I gave very little thought to
the things that I really do have, what really matters most. I spent too much time complaining.
Thinking today about how much time I spend whining was unbelievable! I must sound like a spoiled little child to my Heavenly Father! I should change the way I think. I have NEVER been this bad before.



It's time for a makeover!



Not a worldly, "do my hair and give me new clothes" makeover. It's time for a serious attitude adjustment. It's time for me to appreciate everyone and everything and every gift I'm given. I am undergoing "The Gratitude Experiment!"


Here are a few examples:


*Bad Attitude: I am so busy. I have a very hoppin' schedule which (between teaching at the school, teaching from my home, writing, recording, being a mom/housewife/friend/etc.) keeps me consumed most days. Sometimes I grumble about needing time to slow down.
~New Attitude: I will recognize how blessed I am to have the ability to fill up my time with such amazing and wholesome activities and with an amazing body and good health which will allow me to fulfill life's demands. I need to be grateful for the support I have and for the ability to do all that I do.



*Bad Attitude: I often find myself wishing my family could play a little more together, go on a vacation or do something exciting like that.
~New Attitude: I will be grateful for a husband who works so very hard to provide for our family. I will be grateful for the fact that he HAS work, in today's economy. I will recognize how blessed I am that my children are such hard workers around the home and that we get to have memories of accomplishing together.



*Bad Attitude: I've got a ba-zillion green tomatoes sitting inside my house waiting to redden up so I can spend HOURS that I really don't have bottling them into spaghetti sauce. I have, like, a million other things I shoulda/coulda/woulda be doing.
~New Attitude: The Lord saw fit to provide us with what we needed this year. He blessed us with a bountiful harvest. I will be grateful for the fact that I have this knowledge and ability to use the harvest to provide healthy, basic necessities for my beautiful, growing family.



I believe that if we will follow Pres. Monson's advice and LIVE with a grateful heart, that we really will touch a little bit of heaven.


Are there little things you can improve on, too?