GratefulSample

We spend a lot of time building our Christmas lists. We sit for hours looking through our favorite websites and scrolling Amazon to assemble lists of the most desired items we hope people will buy for us.

Line after line, we identify the items we want the most, ranging from electronics, clothing, or accessories for our car, to video game systems, gift cards, and anything else we wish to own but don't want to purchase ourselves.

We make our list and check it twice to ensure everything we want is on the list and that we don't forget a single thing. But what if we flipped the entire idea of making lists and took a completely different approach? What would our lives look like if we began the process of compiling lists of things we were thankful for? How would our perspectives change if we began writing down the good things about our lives and the people in them? Chances are, we'd become happier people.

It's amazing how changing our perspective can change the world around us. It gives us a chance to consider the goodness of God and the ways God has shown up for us in every way.

Being thankful for the things in our lives causes us to have less stressful thoughts. We might even find more love and compassion in our hearts, if we were to create a list of everyone in our lives and why we're thankful for them.