The Beautiful Life

Learning Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”–William Arthur Ward

I’ve been given so many gifts, but how many times do I just grab them and run, ignore them or even reject them?  And I’m missing out.  With every blessing that God gives me, I have an opportunity to bless God back.  I am going to learn to be grateful.  It doesn’t come naturally, and it’s not easy, but I am willing to learn.  To look past what I don’t have and see what I do have.  To appreciate and savor, and to praise him for these endless gifts.  So today, I begin.

1.  Dinner and laughter with old friends.

2.  Children who pile into bed with me in the morning.

3.  The hush at the end of the day.

Father, teach me to treasure these gifts from your hand and may my life be a life of thankfulness.

On Perfection

My whole life, I’ve lived by the philosophy that if it’s not perfect, it’s not worth it.  I’ve had some times where I thought that it was working for me.  But then I start to complain and criticize and end up depressed.  Striving for perfection can be a hard burden to bear.

And then God steps in and says, “I’m the only one who’s perfect.  Someday, you will be perfected, but it’s a journey, and along this journey you are going to stumble.  It’s going to be messy and embarrassing and ugly.  You’ll get scraped knees and broken arms.  It’s going to hurt.  But you know what?  It’s also going to be beautiful and thrilling.  And I am going to rejoice, not when you’ve done something perfectly, but whenever you get back up after you’ve failed.  That’s all I’m asking, not for perfection, but to just keep getting up.  Just keep getting up.”

Like a little child, taking first steps, stumbling, and getting up, stumbling and getting up.  But as parents we don’t demand perfection, we just look at them with eyes full of love, and encourage them to try again.  We say, “look at me, come to me.”  And God says to his stumbling children, “Eyes on me.  Eyes on me.  Look at me.  Come to me.”  And he’s smiling.  And just like the little child eventually learns to perfect his steps, so do we.  But the focus is never on perfection, but on just getting up and trying again.

So today, I failed again.  But this time, I’m not going to beat myself up, wallow in self-pity, and dwell on how I keep missing the mark.  I’m going to just get back up.  And I’m going to do it all again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.  Do you want to know why?  Because His mercies are new every morning.  His mercies are new.  A new start–every single day.