An Attitude of Gratitude and Appreciation

In thinking about my path on this writing journey I've embarked on, I have to consider you, my reading audience. Thus after some thought and review of the direction I'm moving in, my first thought was to update you. But, my more important and second thought was how much I appreciate all of you.

Some of you have subscribed to me. Some of you have me on RSS feeds, and many of you have traveled from several of my other writing sites to this one, or from this one to several of my other sites. It says so much that you would take the time to click one of my links and follow my flow into another site where I may be writing on a different sort of topic.

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My goal at all times in my writing is to educate and inform. The fact that some of you are consistently following me from site to site and article to article speaks volumes to me. First of all, it makes me so appreciative of you and your heart; and the support that you give me. For a long time, I wrote articles, in which I barely ever got any feedback, so I had no idea if people were even understanding what I was writing, let alone if they liked it, despite the fact that I did my utmost to be very clear, and to define much of the language.

I finally posted something in which I mentioned my uncertainty about that, and got a few very definitive comments on feedback telling me to press on. Thus I have; and now I have been here in hubpages for a bit over 2 years as well as in the other sites. Some of my sites are newer than others, and some I just needed to keep up with and begin updating again. Nevertheless, I am pressing on because I realized something.

There are certain things that you will do when you are moving towards a goal, that no one but you will notice. There are certain efforts that will seem, to those outside yourself, to be accomplishing nothing, but let me encourage you to press on.

It is those little hidden things that only you know about; the mundane things that must be done and, done consistently over a long period of time, that will ultimately make that change you are looking for. It won't come with a parade. There won't be thunder and lightning, because the change is subtle.

Many people get themselves hurt, or disappointed because they are looking for a Quantum Leap philosophy to latch onto, but that doesn't work. What is a Quantum Leap philosophy? It basically states that if you do a particular thing, for a short, set amount of days, like 90 days, then you will have a specific end result in another set time frame, like 120 days. Ever see or hear of such an ideology?

It exists in a lot of scams. The reality is, things just don't happen in life that way. That is pipe dream ideology. There is no set way to accomplish anything. It is not the how, but how you do the how. I learned that this weekend. It is a powerful concept once you grasp it, but I'll talk about that more in another post.

The point is, don't give up. Keep doing the little things that will get you one step closer to that goal, and don't let anything or anyone hold you back. If you just stay consistent, you will get there eventually. Be patient, and have faith and lastly, persevere. Hang in there.

Do you know why the night is always darkest before the dawn? This is why. Because you have to walk by faith. You have to trust in the fact that you are taking the steps, walking that walk that, if you have a written plan, will get you one step closer, and then another step closer to your end goal.

It is darkest at the end, because of the length of time you have been pressing towards that mark, and pushing towards that goal. It is darkest because we are human, and we get tired, but even then, don't quit. That is the time for you to draw on your reserves; that final extra bit of energy and faith needed for that last push into the dawn.

One of the other things I have learned in this journey is the fact that you must have an attitude of gratitude. You must not focus on what does not go the way you expect it to. Expectations are the downfall of man. Remember that. You cannot truly be trusting if you have set expectations that you've locked your hope on.

Faith is about trusting that what is best for you will be provided, regardless of the circumstances you see around you. God is almighty and supersedes our circumstances as long as we don't focus our attentions and reactions on them.

Even in the things that surprise us or appear to set us back, we must still find a reason to be thankful, and then sit back and watch God show up and show out. My water got turned off last week, and do you know what my remark was? "Oh, it's cool. This just means that God has arranged for some other entity (agency) to pay that bill off, so that I can start fresh without several months of this bill to catch up on."

Sure, it's a bit inconvenient, but certainly not the end of the world. My son and I went into camping mode. We have a underground well outside with a pump. God had already provided this with the house, despite the fact that I never asked for it when I prayed about this house. He had already anticipated my needs long before I did.

That water is not drinkable, but we use a 5 gallon container and fill it from this pump, using it to fill the toilet, or we add a bit of bleach and use it to wash dishes, or washing up with and so forth. We bought a few gallons of bottled water for drinking and cooking with, and we are cool until this bill is addressed. If I didn't have an attitude of gratitude, this would be a huge problem, and I'd be complaining about it.

You see, I could complain. I could whine about the inconvenience, but honestly, what would that accomplish? It would alter my happy, positive attitude into a frustrated, angry one. And for what? Honestly, would any of that change my immediate circumstance? Would that get the bill paid? No. It wouldn't accomplish one thing other than irritating and/or depressing me.

So the goal is, to find something to be grateful about in the midst of the circumstance that is inconvenient, uncomfortable, or that somewhat startles you. Yes, it caught you off guard, but is it life-threatening, or are you still alive and standing? What you have to recognize is that even in these trials, it is part of your process. Your directional shifts are based on your reactions to trials and inconveniences.

Again, it's about the subtleties, and in your daily trials and tribulations, your perspective is governing those shifts...either in your favor or not. Either you are moving closer to your heart's desire, or your subtle shifts are changing your philosophy, which is changing your attitude, which governs what you do. If you find yourself in situations that seem to be repeating within different scenarios, it is because you didn't learn what you were supposed to learn. You reacted instead of responding, thus the shift that occurred did not cause a step forward, but a step backwards, and you had to repeat.

After a period of time in repeat mode, the shift will be more of a permanent shift in a different direction; which equals missed opportunity. All your efforts will then have been in vain, simply because you didn't find some gratitude in your attitude; you didn't look for the positives, but focused instead on the negatives. Your process then shifts into a reverse mode away from what you want because your philosophy, which is made up of all that you experienced and learn, has shifted.

For this reason, I thought that I'd take the time to say thank you to all of my readers, and all who traverse the web to follow me in my various sites and blogs. I truly do appreciate the fact that you take the time out your busy day and schedule, to spend a few minutes with me, through my written articles. It really means so much, and encourages me to give more to you. Thank you.

It amazes me how much people whine about their conveniences, never seeming to recognize that God promised to take care of your needs, not your conveniences. But even when He does, be grateful, because He doesn't have to. When you have those extras, when things are going completely well in your world, just remember to be thankful.