One Saturday night, something peculiar happened in our living room: my son began to laugh. You know how it is with toddlers, they laugh at the weirdest things and sometimes, they laugh at nothing at all. This particluar night, he was laughing at nothing at all, or at least, nothing we could tell. As I sat there wondering at the cause of his laughter, his father began to laugh, too. Soon, they were laughing really hard. The more I tried to calm them down, the more they laughed. Of course, without intending to, I joined in the laughter. And as I watched them both, I realised the truth of the lyrics of that old song, “The best things in life are free.”
Watching my husband and son laugh so hard and so long for no apparent reason brought me into true and deep gratitude.
I realised that we don’t have to wait for the ‘big moments’ to be grateful to God. The sweetest moments are the really simple ones that we take for granted every day. A healthy, laughing son. A wonderful laughing husband. The ability to climb the stairs unaided. The ability to chew and swallow. The gift of sight. Clean water to drink. Breathing. Air.
We are so blessed, and most times we don’t even feel blessed. We’re waiting for that goal to be ‘smashed’. We would be so grateful if we had X amount of money in the bank. We would be really thankful to God when we got a great job or if we got married this year. These are all great things and achievements, but we cannot afford to postpone our gratitude.
Being thankful for the small, everyday things we take for granted will make room in our lives for the big things we desire. I started a keeping a Gratitude Journal again this year, and I intend to fill its pages with the great, huge, mind-blowing achievements and the small, regular, amazing gifts of each day.
