a quick secret to stay happy :)

When I woke up my son today to get ready for school, he wasn’t happy by a long shot.  He was cranky & grumpy and unfortunately, by the time he got in the car, he was still in the doldrums – a very yucky way to start off on a Monday morning 😦

We all have times, seasons, days and moments when we are grumpy & here’s a potential quick fix:  be thankful.  Rather than looking at the grumpy stuff (back to school, bills, tired, physical pain, hardship, emotional stressors, relationship difficulties, job / school challenges . . . . ), take some moments to be thankful.

Thank God:

• that the sun came up this morning
• for the oxygen that we breath
• that God’s love is vast yet personal
• that God is both faithful and good
• for a nice blog to give you this helpful reminder ,)

Being happy any place & any time

I just want to be happy! We’ve all heard this & probably even said it a few times ourselves. Some people seem to be more naturally proned to being happy & maybe they’re just optimists. Or, maybe they know the secret of being thankful, even when it’s not Thanksgiving. When you find yourself in a funk, start thinking of the things for which you can be grateful – the more you do this, it’s highly possible that your happiness quotient will increase. Another secret to be happy relates to being generous, but that’s for another day 🙂

a thought about staying continually happy

Even though this is a short entry, it is really powerful:

I have this habit that I do almost every morning – I thank God for all of the cool things that happened during the previous day.  I love getting to do this because it’s a great way to enter God’s presence (I will enter His courts with thanksgiving in my heart).  But here’s the latest challenge I’ve been sensing from God:  real-time gratitude.  Instead of waiting for my gratitude to expressed during my morning routines, I feel that God is challenging me to be grateful in the moment & not just the morning.  So I find myself being more thankful as an attitude in my day and not just in the morning prayer time “compartment”.  As as result, I feel that I’m more content, happy and buoyant.  As a concluding thought, another idea is to pre-thank the answers, solutions and provisions that God has for us (ahead of time).  Now that would be a total lifestyle of gratitude (past, present & future).  Just a little food for thought 🙂

Thank You!

First of all, thank you heaps & heaps for reading my blog!  Thank you for your very kind comments, thoughts and for the opportunity to connect with some deeper thoughts than a quick tweet or fb post 🙂
I’ve also been thinking about the power of saying “thank you” & being grateful, most of all with God.  I’m also super pumped to post this today because we are no where near Thanksgiving – the stereotypical being thankful post.  Instead, I wanted to share something that is an important part of our daily routines – gratitude.  Everyday I try to take some time to thank God for very specific things – big, medium & small – from the previous day.  I enjoy thanking God for all kinds of things like:  nice coffee, a beautiful sunrise, some progress with Saving Moses, my kids having a good day at school, the nice chat with a friend and boatloads more!  When I start being thankful, it gets hard to stop & best of all, it’s one of the best ways to enter into God’s presence – with thanksgiving in my heart 🙂

Let’s stay thankful!

An encouraging challenge

Sometimes I can get discouraged when I look at problems that seem to have no answers & sometimes I can get overwhelmed by some challenges that seem insurmountable. Ever feel the same? During my prayer time this morning, I was reminded about how God had a sheep waiting for Abraham when he was about to sacrifice Isaac. This story reminds me that God has solutions, provisions & wisdom waiting for me when various needs can become urgent. In the meantime, rather than fretting, getting stressed out & uptight about various problems, I can change my thinking to being grateful & appreciative that God has already provided answers & resources. When I’m thankful, I’m a better traveling companion with God during the journey of life rather than being stressed out 🙂

Thank you!!

I just want to take a brief moment to thank you for reading this blog. I know that you have a never ending list of choices for your reading so I’m particularly grateful that you have taken some time with me. Additionally, I especially want to thank those of you who have left comments, who’ve encouraged me & also for those who have subscribed to receiving this blog.
Thank you for going on this journey with me, for your patience & for being gentle. In our cyber world of social media & relationships over the web, thank you for not being judgmental, harsh nor condemning. Thank you for getting to connect 🙂

Grateful reverses Grumbling

I was reading about how the Israelites were rather grumbly when they were delivered from slavery. They grumbled about being stuck at the Red Sea, they grumbled about not having water, they gem led about not having food & it seems like they grumbled about Moses. Truthfully, I’m not so sure that I would have been less grumbly if I’d been in their sandals ,)
But here’s a few challenge points:
*I think that being grateful can be more helpful than being grumbly
*being grumbly or being grateful seems to create more of themselves (when I grumble, I can easily grumble more & it’s the same for me w gratitude)
*gratitude is a specific way to worship & give praise to God
*gratitude has better effects on my thinking & emotions than being grumbly
*gratitude positions my focus out & up rather than in & down
Let’s be grateful!!