Friday, May 21, 2010

Hope and Gratitude

This morning I was reading blogs. In my sister-in-law's blog, she talked about a woman named Stephanie who had been in a plane crash and suffered severe burns. My sister-in-law also included a video of Stephanie's story and it was a huge inspiration to me.

There are many days that I struggle with the challenges I face. Those challenges vary from day to day and some are as simple as struggling to find stuff to occupy my time so that I feel like I've been productive or trying to reassure myself that it's alright to have a day where I just read. Some are more extreme like trying to deal with an abuse that happened years ago and not being able to have kids.

As I watched Stephanie's story, I was impressed with her courage, faith, and optimism. I felt hope for my life and gratitude. I felt a reassurance that every day does not have to go perfectly for things to be alright. I don't have to be perfect for me to be alright. There is always room for improvement, but that improvement does not have to happen all at once or even in a short period of time. I felt that things would work out even when it doesn't seem like it ever will.

Some days, I struggle with all of these trials, but other days I only struggle with a few. I'm grateful for the days that I don't struggle so much; for the days that I feel great and can conquer the world. I'm even grateful for the days that I really struggled to do anything, including getting out of bed. I'm grateful for those days because they've helped me get to this point where most days, I feel good. Through all of this, I was reminded of this quote (I need a plaque with this quote on it so that I can read it every day):

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." -Melody Beattie

1 comment:

Janis said...

Gratitude is a vital part of our happiness. If we are not grateful, then we'll never be happy, we'll never have enough. By having opposition, we appreciate the good things that come our way. You are a special daughter of our Heavenly Father and He is ever aware of you and all that you go through.