An Attitude of Gratitude Brings About Many Opportunities

So I spent the entire day inside with the kiddos while Dane was at work and did not even think about shoveling the drive. I've always been spoiled because Dane takes care of the outside stuff and I'm more of the inside pro. That works out pretty well for us since he relishes the great outdoors and I'd rather sit inside and look at God's grand creation from my recliner with frozen pizza in tow. Plus in the time it'd take me to shovel our drive, my three turdlings could turn my house into the set of 'Hoarders' and it creates another project!

ANYWAYS, when Dane got home from work tonight he was so excited that the drive was shoveled and I hadn't even noticed yet. We're assuming the next door neighbor handled the drive and walkway for us. My first thought was, "Oh crap, did he see me through my window eating Ramen in my nursing bra?" quickly followed by a deep regret that I hadn't noticed and didn't get a chance to thank him yet. Which leads to the whole point of this post...thankfulness.

I once read a fortune cookie that said, "An attitude of gratitude brings about many opportunities." That is so true. I feel like the ability to show gratitude is dying and that makes me really sad. Nothing irks me more than watching someone work hard to provide a gift or service for someone else and it not be acknowledged. I don't know if it comes from a sense of entitlement, being busy or an 'it's all about me' attitude but it's not cool.  My neighbor could have done so much more with his time than trudge through MY snow and freeze his butt off but he inconvenienced himself to help out our little family without even expecting anything in return.

When your grandma goes out of her way to send you a birthday card with that nice crisp check enclosed, guess what?! She didn't HAVE to do that. She probably drove her rose tinted Cadillac all the way to Wal-Mart, fought for her favorite handicap parking spot,  filtered through the millions of greeting cards, paid an ungodly amount for something you won't read anyway, pulled from her small account and wrote you that shaky cursive check just to show you she cared. How hard is it to give her a quick call and thank her for the $10 you're not supposed to spend all in one place?

I don't know about you but Dane and I work really hard for every single penny we earn. When someone buys you a gift, they not only worked for it but are also taking away from their family to help you.  I often tell my boys, "Hey, I scrubbed a lot of toilets for the money it took me to buy you that!" (So from now on think of my gifts as 'toilet gifts' ;))

So yeah, next time someone goes out of their way to do something nice for you take ten seconds to send them a text, write out a thank you card, publish it on Facebook, call them up, whatever. And try to show your gratitude more than just once per instance. You'll be amazed by how much it means to them and the opportunities it can bring you in the future. It's really not that hard to stand out anymore. A little bit of gratitude goes a looooong way.