21 Day Challenge - Day 5

I am participating in  EVERYDAY GYAAN the 21 Day Challenge

May 1-21, 2015

Day 5

 

I can never underestimate the power of Gratitude in my life, somehow from the college days, I have learnt over a period of time to practice the art of thankful ness for everything in my life. I trace this habit back to my parents who always thanked the Lord; and in fact relied so much on Gods providence, that when I used to ask my dad for the fees, he would point out at Jesus image; and tell me, seek and thank the Lord first and everything else will follow in life.

 I watched my parents bring up nine children, two grandmothers (my dad’s mother and my mom’s + my one grandmother’s sister with high level of gratitude.  There was always enough for everyone, nobody went to bed hungry; and there was still enough food for those who visited our family anytime of the day. Now I reflect back to see that there was always abundance of food, all the nice children were sent to school and in summer we had my uncle’s family, another seven children who used to stay with us for their vacation.

“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Bible)

Later on as I started getting involved in the church activities and prayer groups; I heard almost all the teachers and the preacher’s emphasis on the importance of thanksgiving in prayer.  I tried practicing to an extent without really understanding much about its power. Thanks to all the wonderful authors like Norman Vincent Peale, Robert schular,  Dr Joseph Murphy, Louise Hay and so many other authors who keep inspiring through lives, and have helped  me to realize the magic of gratitude;

Once I understood the benefits of being grateful, I chose gratitude as a way of life and have no regrets till date for having made this choice in my life. With gratitude in my heart, everything appeared so easy and simple that things just started happening.  I found plenty of opportunities for growth and I am still finding at the place of my work, I never demanded, looked for and asked for opportunity, but my  state of gratefulness opened up doors and I effortlessly walked in attending workshops, seminars and conferences that added to my quality of work as well as my life.

When we are grateful we will also attract meaningful and satisfying relationships, from my experience it just happens as we keep moving in gratitude, we find the right kind of persons to inspire and motivate us and it becomes easy to recognize and eliminate people who are toxic; thereby we get surrounded by cheerful and grateful persons.

Dealing with money was a major issue in my life and I began by blessing the money, kissing it with love,  to give to all those who have offered  service  to me and our family; thanks to Louise Hay wherein I learnt to bless every bill, every letter that came home.

I learnt to be grateful to every service provider who trusted us with money, the person who supplied us with milk every day, so that we could enjoy our morning tea/coffee, the nearby grocery store that supplies with all the items required for cooking, the newspaper boy who left newspaper every day for us to keep us updated with information and happenings locally& nationally. 

The company that supplies us gas for cooking and the cable connection persons who provide entertainment throughout the year and there are many more persons who helps us in day to day life… as we gratefully acknowledge one by one and pay them with gratitude, there is a smooth flow of money meeting every need of ours.

With focus on gratitude, I also managed to survive illness and death of our son Emmanuel, David’s major life threatening road accident, his sister’s loss of a full term baby, David’s brother’s death and very recently his brother in laws death.  

I continue to live with gratitude and I hope to make gratitude a way of life…. ..

Be Blessed & Be Happy !