We Have a Choice

I'm not a night owl.

Never have been, probably never will be. My idea of a late night is anything past 10:30. Ideally, I'm in my jammies and snuggled in blankets by 6:00.

Why am I telling you this, you may ask?

Because I really like to sleep.

And I have a night class that messes with that. Its a three hour art class, once a week.

I can be a night owl once a week, right?

However, I've run into this problem...

WE ALWAYS GO OVER TIME!!

Now, an extra five minutes is one thing, but this last class went thirty-five minutes over.

Behind my smile, I was fuming.

Okay, so why exactly am I telling you this? It's not to make you feel bad for me, because Lord knows there are far greater problems than this. It's not even to complain either, even if it seems like I am.

I'm sharing this little story of mine to remind you (and I) of a practice we often neglect: thankfulness.

I know, I know. We have Thanksgiving and gratitude journals and whatnot. But are we really going through our daily lives with grateful hearts?

It's all too easy to let the annoyances of the day whittle you down. Sometimes, by the time I plop into bed, all I'm thankful for is that the day is over.

We have a choice.

We can choose what we focus on, and as cliché as it may be, we can choose joy. We can choose to give thanks, to praise, because friends, there is always something to be grateful for.

At the very least, God has sustained us another day. I bet if we thought about it though, God has blessed us a lot more than we may initially believe.

You know the saying, "what you think about expands"?

Imagine if we chose to think about all the good that God has given us; imagine how much that goodness would grow in us, how much we good we could share with others.

I've decided not to stay mad at my professor.

What I'm going to do, instead, is message my classmates and compliment their artwork and hard work.

I'm choosing gratitude, choosing joy. And my choice will brighten others' days as well.

Will you choose the same?