Crossroads - At The Intersection Of Gratitude And Discontent

Crossroads - At the Intersection of Gratitude and Discontent

I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. —Martha Washington

TO CLOSE OUT this chapter on crossroads, I would like you to pause at the intersection you’re sitting at right now. Regardless of your life stage, your socio-economic condition, your political leanings, or your spiritual understanding, you sit at the intersection of Gratitude and Discontent—with every other woman—every morning and at the end of every day and several times in between.

It is so easy for us to turn onto Discontent when people hurt us, when business is hard, when our expectations are not met, and when the brightness of tomorrow seems to never materialize. It’s easy to whine, complain, and demand more out of everything from our relationships to our hotel stay (a source of my discontent last week—don’t get me started). But to turn onto Discontent is a choice. And it’s a choice that does us absolutely no good; a choice that is not just a “zero” in its effect on our state of contentment, but a negative. Turning onto Discontent only robs us of embracing those marvelous things we do have, usually in abundance.

So regardless of where you are today or what you’re doing, I hope you will stop right now and start a blessings checklist. Every time you encounter another frustration or disappointment, I hope you will consider its opposite benefit—the blessing you either have already received or will receive in the future. And for every gift that doesn’t cost you a thing—those people in your life whom you love and who love you, nature in all her splendor, and your next heartbeat—I hope you will consider those things, too, as you drive down Gratitude Way.

I will thank the LORD because he is just;I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. (Psalm 7:17)

You know, now that I really think about it, I’m just grateful that I had a bed to sleep in at that hotel last week.