I raised a couple of teenagers and have helped take care of those grown-up teenagers\u2019 teenagers. I know well that they go through all spectrums of emotions at any given time. One day they\u2019re optimistic and in a good mood. The next day they can \u2018tudes that put a damper on their day and ours! We all know those mood swings because we were once teenagers.
I remember me. I\u2019ll admit, I regret those times when I was less than grateful. Oh, how precious was my mother as she navigated me, single-handedly, through those rough waters of boyfriend troubles and school and test troubles \u2013 all that seemed so insurmountable \u2013 but they all came and passed \u2013 literally. I married the boyfriend and successfully passed the tests and graduated. And, what was once a half-empty perspective, is now a full glass today.
We made it through another year \u2013 and while there were troubles and concerns throughout it, I\u2019ll bet we can find a lot more to be grateful for than those things that were on the negative side of the column. I\u2019m already praying that God makes this new year one that we remember to daily express gratitude for His goodness and mercy that keeps us strong, healthy, with lots of good food on our tables, being able to be God\u2019s hand extended to so many around us, receiving protection in the midst of storms and accidents, laughter in the midst of tough times, and security and peace in abundance. We are so blessed.
It\u2019s easy to have a HALF EMPTY glass attitude if we allow the negative to overtake our thoughts. My blog from Cabo yesterday held within it, photos of the oh, so good times we had. I told you about oldest grandson, Braden, losing his wallet when he was going through customs in Cabo, but didn\u2019t show photos of him having to make calls to cancel his credit cards. We didn\u2019t see him all sad and negative about the loss. That\u2019s because he wasn\u2019t sad and negative. He kept a positive attitude and even expressed that he hoped the money in it would bless someone.
You also didn\u2019t see this photo from Monday (because I knew it would be a blog today). Here is Braden AFTER we got a phone call from American Airlines notifying that they found his wallet \u2013 completely intact \u2013 money included. When we were checking in for our flight home, the attendant handed Braden that wallet. How\u2019s that for a FULL glass of gratitude and attitude?
I hope that this year I take deep breaths of gratitude every day. No doubt, I\u2019ll miss the boat many times, but I hope that I will, first and foremost, be a glass, not just half full, but full of optimism, gratitude, and hope. Each morning we can wake up with the need for a cup of coffee to get us in that \u201cfull glass\u201d mode. Or, we can go to our Source of life, peace, joy, hope and love and FULL UP with an \u201call things are possible with God\u201d attitude. We can get up on the RIGHT side of the bed saying \u201cThis is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!\u201d (Psalm 118:24)
We can look in the mirror and declare \u201cYou are looking good. You are filled with the goodness of God and quite frankly, He looks good on you!\u201d We can BE the light that brightens the room and the catalyst for helping others to desire a full glass of awesomeness too!
Daily, being a \u201cfull glass\u201d of optimism and gratitude takes discipline. It requires a shift in thinking from \u201cwoe is me\u201d to \u201cjoy is me\u201d. It means releasing despair and embracing hope. Hope can inspire gratitude for what is and what will be. It is an everyday commitment to push through the doubts and worry to declaring: \u201cSomething good is going to happen to me today!
\u201cMay the God of hope fill you (a glass FULL) with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.\u201d (Romans 15:13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I raised a couple of teenagers and have helped take care of those grown-up teenagers\u2019 teenagers. I know well that they go through all spectrums of emotions at any given time. One day they\u2019re optimistic and in a good mood. The next day they can \u2018tudes that put a damper on their day and ours!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22521,22519,22520,22518],"tags":[22516,1519,1210,7528,22513,22515,4367,38,22514,3049,40,22517,15693,6112,4128,44,8039,30,125,1289,13014,14701],"class_list":["post-15407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-empty-glass","category-full-glass","category-half-full","category-positivity","tag-accidents","tag-attitude","tag-blog","tag-concerns","tag-empty-glass","tag-full-glass","tag-grateful","tag-gratitude","tag-half-full-glass","tag-healthy","tag-inspiration","tag-lost-wallet","tag-mood-swings","tag-negative","tag-new-year","tag-peace","tag-positive-attitude","tag-scripture","tag-security","tag-storms","tag-teenagers","tag-troubles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15409,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407\/revisions\/15409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}