Insight (046)

Wherever you find gratitude, you tend to find hope. Somehow, being grateful highlights the good things and overshadows the not so great ones. Suddenly, you begin remembering what worked out and what went right. It’s funny, but the more you pull at the thread of appreciation, the more things you find there are to appreciate.

What if, rather than sweeping the good under the rug as “coincidence,” you celebrated each one like you just won the Quidditch cup? My guess is you’d find a lot more joy and have a lot more fun with the details of life. The thing is, there’s both good and bad happening all around, but you end up noticing what you’re looking for most.

Sure, it’s been a wild year with a cinematic storyline, but there are footnotes of hope written on each and every page. Can you think of any you may have skipped over? How about the time you just knew God came through and helped you work it all out? Or, the time your friend just happened to call when you really needed to talk? Even the little bit of progress you made the other day is worth making a big deal about.

The more you look for the good things in the past, the more you’ll recognize the good things ahead, and the more grateful you’ll become in the present. Live into gratitude and you’ll experience the magic in life you’ve been looking for...the hope you now know how to find.