What Would Life be Like Without...?

A few years ago, a November trend started on InstaPinFace to list something you were thankful for each day.  While I haven’t seen it as prevalent this year as in years past, it often gets me thinking about the attitude of gratefulness I should have all the time.

I attended a conference for my Mary Kay business over the weekend.  It was a great time of fun, training, and catching up with friends.  The question was posed to us to consider what our life would be like if we did not have Mary Kay.  At first, I didn’t think much about it because I’m not currently in a leadership level, but as I started looking around the room and the people sitting there it made a huge impact on me.  That small business has brought some amazing women into my life.  Women who have become my very close friends, who have helped babysit when needed, who have provided emotional support in hard times, who have laughed with me in crazy moments, and we have cried together in hard ones.  The very last friend out the door of my home in Indiana was a friend I met through that business.  I thought about the “extras” it has paid for in our life and the richer life I have because of my amazing friends.  That question “What would your life be like without...?” started making me think about all the areas in my life.  And it brought be to realize just how grateful I am, and how grateful I should be.

As the weekend progressed, that question stayed in the front of my mind.    Since we had gone back to Indiana for the conference, (a) and I were able to also spend a couple days catching up with family and friends, we got to worship with our beloved OCC church family, eat some pizza at our favorite local pizza place, and attend a cattle show that has long been a family tradition.  And that question just kept popping up in my heart… What would our life look like without friends like this?  What would my life look like if I hadn’t been raised in the barn?  What would last year have been like if we had never been invited to Ogilville Christian Church?  What would we do without a family who dearly loves our little cowboy?  And as those questions kept coming through my mind, I couldn’t help but realize how very thankful I am.  I’m thankful for people who stand with us when we don’t have the strength to stand on our own.  I’m thankful for people who pray with us and over us in both the good times and bad.  I’m thankful for the opportunities that I have been given.  I’m thankful for the work ethic that was instilled in me, the lessons that made me stronger, and the mentors who set examples. 

I'm so thankful to be the mom in this little tribe.

While this question kept running through my mind and my heart, something else hit me also.  I know I feel incredibly grateful, but do I TELL people that I am incredibly grateful?  Do I make a conscious effort to tell the people in my life how thankful I am for them?  Do I tell people when I am thankful for their actions?  Growing up, my mom instilled the importance of “thank you notes” in us.  It is a practice I still try to follow (though I will admit that sometimes I am an epic failure), but I mostly only use thank you notes for material things.  Maybe it is time I start writing thank you notes for “heart things” too.  It is time I start looking at the things I am grateful for in my life, and telling people about it.  And it is not something I only want do during November, because I don’t want to just live in a season of thankfulness, I want to live a life of thankfulness.      

What would be life look like without…?  I’m very thankful that I don’t know.  I only know what it looks like WITH all our blessings, and for that too, I am so very, very grateful!!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." Psalm 100:4