Be thankful for EVERYTHING today! (And Every day!)
Look around your life at all the things, people, animals, trees, and everything else around you. Everything that we have and love and maybe once loved is a blessing to us. We need to be very careful NOT to take any of it for granted!
We recently got back from another trip to Africa where we serve, love on and help a tribe of people who have been under dire circumstances for quite a while. They are the kindest, most sweetest people you will ever meet. They have no “stuff” no homes (they live in little mud huts), no power, no plumbing.
They move around with their animals and with the rain, they are nomadic. But in the region they are in they have been in a severe drought for the last 12 years. They are never bored, they never complain, never even cry. In an unwritten language of only 54 words, and there are no negative ones. The biggest lesson that I learned there was that over water, everything else we have is extra. Without water, nothing lives.
Here are just a few pictures of our trips below.
So look around again and thank everything and everyone in your life. Spend some time in sheer gratitude and think about how your life would be without it, focusing every single day on how you can get water for your family and animals so that you live another day. The water that is found there is not clean at all, but these people use the animals as filters for the water. The animal drinks the dirty water and turns it into vitamin and protein nutrient milk, everything they need to live off of.
What in your life is extra? If you look at things and they don’t bring you extreme gratitude then it is time to pass them on to someone whom they will. You are decluttering your life and they are receiving a blessing. Find a homeless shelter, a church, a missionary or an orphanage to give all your things that once brought you joy and are now collecting dust. Bring smiles to others faces blessing them with things that once blessed you. Make room in your life that gives you space to thrive, think, and be creative.
After all, things, are just things, and if they no longer bring you joy, they are no longer yours, they belong to someone else now. Set them and yourself free.
Start a gratitude journal and before you go to sleep write at least three things that you are grateful for, little things, big things, everything. Once you get going its hard to stop!
Did you know that it is impossible to have a negative attitude if you are thinking of all the things you are grateful for? The next time your thinking of throwing a pity party or just feeling down in the dumps, simply pull out that journal and remind yourself just how blessed you are. Change your mindset from all the things wrong to all the things right. Life really is good. We really are blessed.
Remember, there is always someone who is having a harder time than we are. Another way to get out of a funk is to go help someone who has it worse off than we do and the joy helping others brings is more than enough to make us smile for weeks.
Find ways to give back in this big old world and this big old world will start giving back to you in ways you could not even imagine!
Mission projects are a GREAT way to get perspective. When I come back from one I look around at my life and realize how truly blessed I am in this big ole world… and how much STUFF I have that I don’t need! Usually ends up with a massive donation to the local charity and a de-cluttered home every time I return.
If you would like to get involved in the projects we are doing in Africa click the Do tab on the menu, or shoot us an email here.
#BetterMeTribe #Gratefulness #GiveBack #Mindset
Inspired? Let us know! What thoughts did this bring up for you?