Happy Tuesday! Today is Happiness Tip #9!
We are almost done with our ten tips to choosing happiness! If you remember I started this way back when with the first Tip here
First of all how can you not smile at that picture of Charli! I think goggles on any one are so funny looking! I have shared 8 easy tips so far and today is just as easy. …
That simple and that easy. Just be grateful. That does not mean life is perfect and things are as you wish or want them to be. It simply means being grateful/thankful for all the blessings you do have.
I have to share a little story with you, many years ago…… no seriously many years ago, probably ten. I was cleaning up my kids playroom. It was a mess and I was in there by myself. We had only three kids then, Mike did not have a great job, he was a paramedic, did not make much money. I was babysitting to make ends meet. We had a crummy car, we did not have anything fancy like computers or big tvs or fancy cell phones. We never went out to eat, we bought all our clothes from thrift stores. We barely made ends meet and well I was frustrated. So while I was cleaning I started praying. Just talking to The Lord and saying what the heck? We are doing what we should, we go to church, we pay our tithing, we try to be good people, we love our children and all these other people that I was seeing were not doing those things and they had the new cars and the nice clothes and got to go out to dinner, and well I was jealous and annoyed.
As I was cleaning I picked up what I thought was a little piece of garbage and I looked at it and it said “be grateful for the things you have” That was all it said, I could tell it was torn from a book and as I read it; I stopped cleaning and sat there and started thinking of all the things I do have.
I have a husband that loves me very much, I had healthy, happy kids, I had a relationship with my Heavenly Father, I had an eternal marriage, I had 10 brothers and sisters that all alive and well and live close by, I had a mom and dad that were not only still happy and healthy but that lived only a block away. I had friends who loved me and I was alive and well.
As I started thinking of all those things, I started to cry. I was so blessed and was richer than I could comprehend. None of those things I was jealous of mattered. None of that could make me happy, none of that really mattered in the eternal perspective.
I have never forgotten that experience and it has changed me since then. I kept that little piece of paper on my fridge for years. To remind me that I should be grateful for whatever I have. I lost it when we moved.
We still struggle to make ends meet, I still babysit. We still have a really old van, I still get all my clothes from thrift stores and you know what? It is wonderful and I love my life and I am grateful for it.
I share my smile book everyday at the end of my posts, I shared a bit more about it HERE
I keep a smile book because I want to think of all the little things that may seem like they don’t really matter, but they do. I want to be aware through out the day of the little blessings and little moments that make me feel happy or grateful and I want to remember them and not take them for granted.
So today I challenge you to start a smile book or just at night, think of three things that day that you were grateful for. They do not have to be huge things. It could be as simple as how good a glass of cold milk tastes with oatmeal in the morning. To something as big as got a new job offer or whatever it may be; the point is to be aware.
That simple experience cleaning the kids playroom changed my life. I was a pretty happy person before, but on top of being happy, now I am peaceful. That is priceless and no amount of money or new clothes can bring that. NOW if for some reason I came into a lot of money… that is okay too! That would be on my grateful list for sure! :)
So that is tip #9 easy right! I promise it gets easier the more you do it! I share five a day, at first I did three a day and wanted to do more so five is good! There are some days where I will write more. Whatever works for you is best!
I would love to hear if you do a smile book, or a grateful journal. How has it changed your life?
Have a happy, grateful day! If you missed any of the other tips!! AND of course my smile book is after that!
Smile Book:
The kids loved dinner, tortellini and pork chops, I mean loved it, Charli ate five servings.
Going to bed by ten and waking up at 6am… love it
raspberry oatmeal yummy!
Mikey scaled a wall yesterday at camp
flip flops!
