from the outside looking in.

Just about every morning I have an hour of “quiet time” where I pray, read, journal, and sometimes even just sit in silence. I’ve actually become quite dependent on that time alone with God. It sets my heart and mind in the right place before starting the day, and it’s during that time that I get the deepest revelations/realizations about God, myself, and life in general.

Today as I was journaling (I’ve posted before about how important I think journaling is), I made a list of all of the things I’m thankful for. This is something I do pretty often, and to be honest the list usually looks the same most of the time.

Today, though, it looked a bit different. I started writing things down that I didn’t even know I was thankful for…things that I either didn’t realize I had, and even things that one arguably wouldn’t/shouldn’t be thankful for.

I realized that the moments of my most sincere thankfulness and gratitude comes from looking at things from an outside perspective. Sometimes I even look at my life as my 16-year-old self. I think she’d be pretty excited if she knew what life in her late 20’s would look like.

It’s so easy to focus on the things we don’t have – “if only THIS happened I’d be so much happier,” or “if only THAT happened my life would somehow be complete.” But if you take a second to look at your life from the outside looking in, you might be surprised that you’re a lot further along – with a lot more to be grateful for – than you realized.

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When you look at your life from an outside perspective, what does it make you most grateful for?