state of gratitude

I really dislike how the phrase, "I have found myself in a state of gratitude" or anything like that, has become overly used and popular in the last several years. It seems that many self-help gurus and public figures such as one might find on the Oprah Winfery Network (no I am not bashing Oprah), try to market this idea of finding peace through gratitude as novel, or worse, their own independent discovery. The reality is that Christ taught us this centuries ago...it just takes a personal crisis for us to finally listen. And, in some cases, it takes really wealthy and famous people restating the concept.

For me, a personal crisis will do just fine. On that note, I/we have been experiencing one of those and it has come to a bit of a head this week. So, in an effort to combat the elevated heart rate and sleepless nights, I need to remind myself of what I am grateful for:

• the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His church organization
• my incredible husband - who seems to sleep regardless of the stress, oh how I admire that.
• my cowboy and his countless, "I love you mom" 's
• my healthy baby on the way
• my raynor family
• my sherry family
• the knowledge that when this is over i will still have a home, income, healthy family and my soul
• the ability to cry - not cute, but such a good pressure release
• the scriptures and prayer
• emily and ryan's generosity with their netflix account
• that i made chocolate chip cookies on Sunday and froze leftover dough
• that we will be spending three weeks exploring with some of our best friends
• maternity pants
• that thomas blew on his food to cool it down and let out the most gargantuan backside eruption - I haven't laughed that hard in a long time

Ah, I feel better already.