Life is busy. That's all there really is to it. My life is busy... busy with kids, baby, husband, home, business. My mind is busy with ideas and burdens and memories and thoughts of all kinds. My days are busy with spit up, diapers, laundry, meal prep, stories, dishes, and so much more. Your lives are busy... your minds are busy... your days are busy too. Life, in general, is just busy.

It's easy, in the busyness of life, to get wrapped up in the now. To focus so much on what is happening now, that we loose focus on the One we are doing it for... on the One who has given us this life... this mind... this day. Everything.

That is where gratitude comes in. Thankfulness. Thanksgiving. Appreciation.

I'm not great at true gratitude. Sure, I'm good with my pleases and thank yous (most of the time). My children are too... before they were talking (the ones that talk that is) they were saying thank you... often without my prompting them. It blew me away more times than not. So what is true gratitude then? Ok... I've made it up. But since I made it up, let me tell you what it is. True gratitude is our thanksgiving to the Lord.

We stop and thank God for food at the start of each meal. We thank God in lots of big moments throughout the day (or we try to anyway)... for stopping that car from crashing into us, for healing that loved one, for providing money for food. Big things seem easy. But they come and go as big things do... at random. Then there are the thanksgiving prayers during focused prayer time (when I actually find make the time for that in these sleep deprived days.)

In these last few weeks I've been turning my focus to more purposeful thanksgiving. Trying to develop a spirit of gratitude in every moment. I'm still taking baby steps, but I'm amazed at how it redirects my focus off of the moment by moment of living and on to the Giver of those moments! The Giver of this life. Instead of letting my mind wander where it will as my hands wash dishes, I'm working to train my mind to go straight to the feet of my Lord in prayer... many of them prayers of thanksgiving. Instead of letting the kids say their standard, "Dear God, thank you for this food, in Jesus name, Amen" prayer at breakfast and lunch, I'm trying to pause a moment with them and ask what they are thankful for. We each pick something and take a moment to thank God in prayer right there... before we thank him for the food.

Like I said... they are baby steps, but I would rather take baby steps the rest of my life in this direction than remain a single day back where we started! Won't you join me on this journey... the destination is amazing! I'd love to know what you are grateful for!