Attitude of Gratitude

Have you ever really sat down and counted your blessings?  I wonder how our days would be if we all started them out by counting our blessings instead of counting our 'To-Do Lists'.  I want to share a few stories with you about gratitude (and sadly, one of them is a story about a lack there of).

The first story is something I witnessed over the weekend.  I work at a luxurious boutique hotel, and part of my job is checking people into their rooms.  I was working with my manager who was about to check in a couple.  The young man said he had a reservation, but my manager did not see his name on the list of arrivals.  The man was very nice and very patient.  He looked at his iPhone to look at his confirmation letter.  He said, "Oh No.... I made the reservation for tomorrow night.  This is my fault.  Do you have any rooms for tonight?"  My manager felt bad because we were completely sold out.  Before my manager could tell him that we would be glad to find them a room along the coast for the evening, this man's wife did something that really made me sad.  In front of us, she said something to her husband.  She said it in a way that was part serious, part sarcastic, part making her husband feel bad.  She said, "This is why I do all the planning for our trips."  After she said this, my manager found him a reservation at another really nice hotel, and we told him that we hope to see him in the future.  He was so grateful for my managers kindness.  What made me so irritated was his wife and her attitude.  For the sake of argument, I am going to try and put myself in her shoes.  Here goes..............

............ I show up to a very nice looking hotel.  My husband and I are very excited and have been looking forward to this for quite some time.  The weather is great, and I'm happy to be there.  I find out that my husband made a mistake and accidentally booked the room for tomorrow night instead of tonight, and the really beautiful hotel did not have a room for us. I can see that my husband feels bad (and probably a little embarrassed)......  Okay, now pause here for a moment................... I really, truly feel that if this were me, I would have laughed and made the best of the situation.  I would not have been upset with him or made him feel bad (or try to embarrass him in front of strangers to make it known who exactly made the error).  I know that before the trip, on the way, and when we showed up, and even after finding out the mishap, I would have thought, "Wow, my husband is so cool because he looked at THIS place online, and wanted to bring me here.  That is very sweet and thoughtful, and I am grateful." 

I am not trying to say this to make me sound better than this woman, but I came home, told my husband, and I expressed how sad this woman made me for her husband.  She truly irritated me.  After the irritation was over, I thought about how grateful she should have been.  I told myself, "If I am ever in this type of situation, I hope that I will be positive, look on the bright side, and make my husband feel better and not bad or embarrassed."

My other story is something that I found on youtube (seriously, I love youtube!  What ever did we do without it before?  Anytime we miss something on TV, we can catch up later with it on youtube).  I found an older video of a talk that was given by the leader of my church.  He said the words, "Attitude of Gratitude" (Does that sound familiar? My title for this wonderful Tuesday!)  These three words really resonated with me.  I think about the word "gratitude" a lot.  You see... I have the potential to look at my life and say, "I wish I had.... I wish I could be.... I wish things were......."  but, for the most part, I really don't.  Of course I have my moments when I wish for things, but now, I try to live in a state of mind that says, "I have it really, really good."  I have a roof over my head.  I have a job I like.  Even more importantly, I have a husband, and a family, who I love very much.  I have wonderful friends who I love very much.  I live in a country where, being a woman, I can walk down the street all by myself (not needing to be accompanied by a man).  I can do as I please.  I can drive wherever and whenever I'd like.  I have so many wonderful freedoms.  Especially being the day after Memorial Day, I was thinking about all the service men and women (past, present, and future) who put their lives on the line every day so that I can do such things and live such a life of true luxury.  For these things I feel such gratitude.  These are some things I feel grateful for, and the list goes on and on. 

I remember last year, I was having a hard time calming my mind down and going to sleep.  When I expressed this to my mom one day, she told me that counting her blessings before she falls asleep has helped her.  That reminded me of my favorite Christmas movie of all time: "White Christmas".  One of the great songs in this movie is "Count your blessings (instead of sheep)".  The first part of that song goes like this:

When I'm worried and I can't sleep

 I count my blessings instead of sheep

 And I fall asleep counting my blessings

 When my bankroll is getting small

 I think of when I had none at all

 And I fall asleep counting my blessings

When I was going through youtube, and found the leader of my church talking about an "Attitude of "Gratitude", I stumbled across another video.  This is the previous leader of my church who passed away a few years ago.  He recalls a story that his father once told him, and it really touched my heart.  I put the link at the bottom of this post (to watch it, I think just by clicking on it, it should pop up).  I hope you all can watch it and enjoy it.  What is really great about this story is that you don't have to be of my faith to understand it.  This story can be related to anyone and everyone.  It's a story about two young boys walking down a road one afternoon and the lesson they learned.

Happy Tuesday to you and yours...

http://youtu.be/naqX9iYE0V0