On Having a Grateful Heart...

I often wonder if gratitude is an innate quality we are born with or is it learned? As children, we are told to be grateful and to say thank you when given a gift. It was always drilled into me to remember all the people in the world who have far less than what I had. I try to instill that same quality into my kids. As humans, I think we sometimes take the small things in life for granted. We are so accustomed to having these small things in life, we neglect to be grateful for them. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the flowers we smell, even the smallest of creatures we pay no attention to--they all serve a purpose in our lives and being grateful reminds us of their very existence.

A grateful heart leads to an abundant life. It strengthens our spiritual, emotional and physical well-being so that we can in turn give back to others who are less fortunate. Even in our darkest moments, we can reflect on others who are going through some turmoil greater than our own trials. Gratitude can cause a ripple effect of good deeds in the world. If we are grateful for what we have in our lives, that emotion will manifest in our actions.We will begin to have a renewed perspective on life and what truly matters. Being grateful for the things we are granted and even those things we haven't been given serves it's purpose even if at that particular time we don't understand the reasoning behind it all. What is meant for us, we will have. What is meant to pass us by, was never ours to begin with.

If we continuously practice gratitude in our lives, it will become apart of who we are. Just being able to wake up today and to be given another chance at life --to right any wrongs we may have done, proves gratitude is an immeasurable quality that we all could use so much more of.

What are you grateful for?