Gratitude.

So last Saturday I was blessed with some quality time with the Werner women!  I always love spending time with them.  We giggled over chocolate fondue and chocolate beards and the girls introduced me to the delightful game Wig Out (basically like the game memory, but the characters all have crazy hairstyles!) 

I know I have written about this family before (here and here), and I especially love how their mother empowers them in everything that they do.  I don't even know if she notices that she is even doing it...it is simply a part of her being and a part of their beautiful relationship.  And I love witnessing it. 

One of the things the Werner family is doing right now is a gratitude wall.  Each night everyone in the family is suppose to write up to 3 things they are thankful for.  I say up to 3 because I think the girls wanted to write more than 3...so someone was smart enough to limit them to just 3.  So the rules are as follows - they can only post up to 3 and they can't repeat anything. 

They have these little pink post-it notes that they stick to the windows, and each person has an area where they put their notes.  And I love it because you can tell whose notes belong to whom simply based on their handwriting and their specific thought.

So that Saturday night I embraced the Werner gratitude ritual.  The pink post-it pad was passed around and each of us wrote one thing on the note that we were thankful for and then stuck it to the window.  The girls had no problem at all adding to their overflowing list of things they were thankful for, but when it came my turn to write I found myself at a loss for words.  And please note ...this doesn't happen too often.

I felt as though my words needed to be something real and profound.  I felt I needed more time to think about it... to process my thankfulness.  But then I thought gosh...shouldn't these things be at the tip of my tongue?  shouldn't I already know what I am thankful for?  I mean how much time does a girl need to come up with 3 things she is thankful for.

So the first words to befall on my pink sticky note was my house...I am thankful for my house...or I suppose I should say OUR house.  As much as I rant and rant some more about all the house projects, I feel so very blessed by the Lord's provision and our own frugality that has enabled us to buy a home!  So for this I am eternally grateful.

The second words to befall on my second sticky note was the Werner's...I am thankful for the Werner's.  I am thankful for this family more than the words on that pink sticky note will ever be able to convey.  I am thankful for the spirit of hospitality, grace, love, and encouragement that permeate the walls of this home.  I am thankful for the laughter and the beautiful sound that is children that reverberates off the walls of this home.  I am thankful for their first goodnight hugs, and even more thankful for their second ones. 

By the time the sticky note came around a third time, I was prepared.  I figured I should think along big, broad, global terms of thankfulness, thus I wrote clean water...I am thankful for clean water.  It is such a simple thing to be thankful for fresh, clean, running water, but it is something I take for granted each and every day.

So that concludes my short list of things that I am thankful for.  Some other things to make their mark on the window were rainbows, the sun, flowers, mommy, daddy, sisters, friends, our health, etc.  The list is simple, but that is the point right?  We should never take the simplest things for granted.

After leaving the Werner's, I vowed that I would be much more aware of my blessings and I would even talk to Peter about starting our own gratitude wall.  I have done both of those things - I am aware and we have talked, but we have yet to act!  But I truly do yearn to have a spirit of thankfulness, to have things at the tip of my tongue.  So I figure this is just the beginning of something beautiful.

So tell me...What would you have written on your pink sticky note?