How dirty dishes and my daughter helped change my persective

In April of 2020, during dinner one night, my 15 year old daughter shared with us something she watched on youtube that day. The person on the video said the following statement “What if we lost tomorrow what we failed to give thanks for today?”

Dishwasher

My immediate thought when Ellie shared that quote was our dishwasher. We were smack dab in the middle of covid lockdown, which meant my whole family was spending all day, every day at home. Which meant we were eating every meal at home which meant we had dirty dishes coming out of our nostrils.

And my first thought was “I have never given thanks for our dishwasher. If we lost our dishwasher because I didn’t give thanks, we would be doing dishes by hand 24/7, and that would suck!”

Big & Small

That got me thinking how much I take things for granted. Sometimes I take the big things for granted, like my family, my health, and food.

But I almost always take ‘small’ things for granted… things like a washer and dryer, a bed, a car, furniture, internet, heat/AC, honestly, the list could go on and on. I take these things for granted, but then when they fail or are taken away, I am act as if I am 11 years old and entitled.

After my daughter shared this quote with the family, I started to be more aware of all the things I took for granted and started to give thanks for both the ‘little’ things AND the ‘big’ things in my life.

I am far from perfect with gratitude but I am waaaayyyy more consistent now than in the past.

Focus & Energy

The phrase “whatever you focus on grows” is so true. As I have focused on what we have, my gratitude has grown and my entitlement has decreased.

I have never met a grateful person who sucks the energy out of the room. I have, however, met many entitled, glass half empty people who absolutely drain every last ounce of energy from the ‘room’. So, during this Thanksgiving season, will you be someone who gives energy to the ‘room’ or will you suck the energy out of the ‘room’? Will you be grateful for what you have or complain about what you don’t have?

Two Questions

What will you not have tomorrow based on your lack of thankfulness today?

Will your gratitude energize the room or will your entitlement and lack of gratitude suck the life out of the room?

Do you want to unlock your potential? If so, I’d love to join you on that journey. (travis@kingdomcoachingtw.com)

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