Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

These Are 7 Things I Am Thankful For

These Are 7 Things I Am Thankful For

Here are 7 things I am thankful for.

Nothing about Thanksgiving, really.

These are valid all year-round.

1. Relationships
I am thankful for family.  For all the people we don’t get to choose to be around, but for the fact that fate and eternity have joined us at the hip. Also for friends that I do not get to see enough. There is never enough time, it seems. And, of course, I am thankful for my faith and for the hope that waits beyond the grave.

2. Mornings
I am a night owl, but parenting has made me an early riser. Three hours with coffee and a few books before the rest of the house starts to wake has become a daily reset button for me.

3. Freedoms
We so easily forget how we can type anything we want on the internet, follow the faith we choose, and mostly live as we wish. Few in human history have been so lucky.

4. Jobs
I have been employed. I have been unemployed. Being employed is better. Until I can reach that coveted position of being Unemployable.

5. Service
If you can ever live outside of yourself, if only for a few hours a week, you can learn so much. Give it a try. Go volunteer once a week for a few months to work with children or the poor. You just might find part of yourself.

6. Technology
Ear tubes, vaccines, antibiotics, dentistry, indoor plumbing, AC, central heat, Advil, allergy shots, the internet. Need I go on?

7. Family Walks
I do not do this enough. But this has become one of my favorite things to do. It gets everyone outside, allows us to be together, and teaches an active lifestyle. I resolve to do this more.

The Key To Having Gratitude

The Key To Having Gratitude

We all need to reflect on gratitude.

The simple thanks for seeing what is, rather than what is not.

For the greatest treasures are nearly always the most simple.

And gratitude has the benefit of being the opposite of a haughty ego.

“Your complaints are not over the lack of necessities but the abundance of benefits. You bellyache over the frills, not the basics; over benefits, not essentials. The source of your problems is your blessings.” José gave me a lot for my dollar; he gave me a lesson on gratitude. Gratitude. More aware of what you have than what you don’t. Recognizing the treasure in the simple— a child’s hug, fertile soil, a golden sunset. Relishing in the comfort of the common— a warm bed, a hot meal, a clean shirt.

-Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (Amazon)

How often are we caught up in our lack of benefits, instead of being thankful for our many necessities?

And at the same time we are blind to the simple treasures that we see everyday.

Shame on us for having such a poor prospective, which is, after-all, the key to gratitude.

“I want to cultivate a deep sense of gratitude, of groundedness, of enough, even while I’m longing for something more. The longing and the gratitude, both. I’m practicing believing that God knows more than I know, that he sees what I can’t, that he’s weaving a future I can’t even imagine from where I sit this morning.”

-Shauna Niequist, Bread And Wine (Amazon)

Sterling Terrell