I Never Thought Of This Before...

I have recently felt strong impressions to work on being more grateful in my life. This comes as we have been struggling to make ends meet since Troy started his own business. We have been making it so far but Troy came home last week and informed me that there will probably not be a pay check for the next couple of months. I don't understand! There aren't enough hours in the day for this man to do all of the work he has. He is booked solid and has a waiting list, yet no paycheck?! It all has to do with insurance companies and people not paying their bills and all of the expenses one has while running one's own business. Gratefully, he teaches a couple of classes at the college which will pay the basic bills, so at least we will have a roof over our heads. He's thinking about taking on another teaching job at the University of Phoenix but I just don't know how he'll do it all and besides we see so little of him as it is.

So, some of you are thinking, "Whoa Lisa Love, too much info! That is private and I would never share that in such a public forum!" Well, let me tell ya...my blog is private now! :) and there aren't a ton of people reading the blog which is very liberating somehow, and, and, AND I know there are a few of you who read this blog who are struggling financially as well. I believe in privacy but I also believe that at some point we need to be willing to share with each other or else we start to think we are the only ones with our problems and that leads to loneliness and isolation and comparing ourselves to unrealistic perceptions and that is dangerous for our spiritual well being.  Reading other people's blogs can be deceiving because, naturally, people are only going to post the good stuff or the noteworthy stuff, but as in my own case, I know I have daily struggles and bad days and life is not always hunky dory around the Love Shack. The thought of someone reading my blog and then feeling badly about their own circumstances, when the reality is that our circumstances have more in common than anyone knows, makes me feel great sadness.

Well, anyway, back to wanting to study gratitude. My desires to be more grateful are what guided my choice of my blog's background (the background was as if one was looking into the universe filled with stars and galaxies). When I think of the vastness of the universe and Who it is who created the universe, my earth life problems seem to shrink back to their realistic size in my perspective. I know this life is but a small moment in my eternal existence and that with God by my side, I can endure and rise above all things.I learned this at a very young age. After my father died when I was 5-years-old, my mother did everything she could to support us but it was hard, very, very hard. Maybe I'll share some of those stories on this blog.

It was during my growing up years, struggling with so many different hard experiences, that I learned to look up at the stars. My mother taught me to love astronomy. We would lie out on the grass in our backyard during the cool summer nights (not in Yuma, obviously, because you can't do that in Yuma it's too HOT!) and we would look up at the stars and somehow I knew that everything would always work out because a feeling of security would wash over me and eternal perspective would fill my heart. It was as if  our Father in Heaven reached down and tenderly wrapped me in a soft quilt made out of the universe and whispered that He, the Master Creator, and Perfect Father, had indeed created all that I could see but that He knew me personally and had a plan for my life and He had everything under control. I believed Him...and I still do.

 I have been praying that our Father would help me with my current levels of eternal perspective because now I'm not a little girl, I'm a mom with two wonderful children who depend on me for everything. As I have been praying about our current issues and pondering how to make it through cheerfully, the Spirit has been whispering that I need to actively work at being more grateful. So, I read the talk given by Pres. Monson in our last General Conference. While reading the talk, my eyes were opened to a wonderful lesson in a story I have read and head so many times, yet I had never made the gratitude connection before.

"In the book of Matthew in the Bible, we have another account of gratitude, this time as an expression from the Savior. As He traveled in the wilderness for three days, more than 4,000 people followed and traveled with Him. He took compassion on them, for they may not have eaten during the entire three days. His disciples, however, questioned, 'Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?' Like many of us, the disciples saw only what was lacking.


'And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And [the disciples] said, Seven, and a few little fishes.


'And [Jesus] commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

'And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.'

"Notice that the Savior gave thanks for what they had—and a miracle followed: 'And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.'

"We have all experienced times when our focus is on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the Greek philosopher Epictetus, 'He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.'


"Gratitude is a divine principle." (President Thomas S. Monson, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude", General Conference, Oct. 2010) Click here to read the whole amazing talk including a great idea for Thanksgiving!

Wowsers! I never thought of that before... the Savior sincerely THANKED our Father for the little bit that they did have BEFORE the miracle took place. There is a great lesson in that and I'm ready to get started on my own grateful journey.

I'm sharing this with you so that some of you can join me on the journey to a more grateful heart. You may have different ideas - share them with me please. What works for my family may not work for your family but we can all help each other on this path. So, to those of you who have actually read this whole long post, I issue the challenge to prayerfully consider how your family can be more grateful. When we are grateful, we are humble and teachable and moldable and, just as in the story of the loaves and fishes, miracles can and will take place. 


Author's note: miracles come in the way the Lord sees fit, which does not always concur with our idea of a miracle. While I was growing up in a very desperate financial situation, there were many miracles but the greatest miracles that took place, took place in my heart and in my mind as I developed a very close relationship with our Father in Heaven and learned to trust  Him and His plan for my life. I will be eternally grateful for the lessons of those years - eternally!

Author's other note: It really doesn't matter what you may be struggling with, be it financial problems, relationship problems, health problems etc...being more grateful seems to be a way of dealing with everything so you are welcome to join the journey even if money is not something you are lacking at this time. :)