Don’t worry I’m not asking you to think of reasons to complain 😏. Just would be sharing with you why there would always be reasons for you to complain or be ungrateful and what you could do instead.

Life in itself has its ups and downs. If you look at the world, your life, things around you, you’d literally be able to come up with something to complain about. Something that hasn’t worked out well, or turned out worse, just anything really. But amidst all those things, you can always choose to see the things to be thankful for.

I have this acquaintance that constantly is all about gratitude. Whenever I look at her post on social media, it’s gratitude about this or that, even the seemingly small things. At first I thought, isn’t this a little too excessive, I wondered if she never had problems or things that made her sad or unhappy. One time I got to have a chat with her closely and we just talked about life generally. There were indeed things that she was still expectant about, things that she wish went differently or better, but she choose the way of gratitude.
Over time I realised that the side of life you choose to magnify is what will become your reality. Yes bad things might have happened, but if you build your tent there and let your life continually revolve around the pain, hurt, dissatisfaction and anger, you’ll never experience true happiness and Joy.

I remember towards the end of 2023, while it’s the norm to reflect on the entire year, everyone making video compilation of the summary of their year. I wondered, is there much to be thankful for? Especially with the year being particularly difficult for me. Life has its ups and downs but that year consisted mostly the “downs” for me (or at least in my perception). A number of expectations and desires unfulfilled and I thought, well thank God I’m alive but what else is there to be thankful for. But the truth remains that at every given phase or season in your life, you’ll always have an expectation that needs to be met, a desire or prayer waiting to be answered. So if you only wait to receive all your answered prayers before being intentional about your life and being grateful, you’ll not be getting the most out of your life. Remember that human wants are insatiable, there will always be something you want.

I turned that unhappiness to gratitude and thought about what I learnt through the year, the capacity I had built through the year, the resilience, the mindset, the compassion , the empathy I learnt, the skills I developed (or at least tried to develop). I became intentional about being thankful for little things.

Isn’t it funny how when faced with some difficulty or long unanswered prayer, your mind forgets all the good things God had done for you and how He came through for you. Even though it was recently, you just forget and focus on the dissatisfaction. Typical of humans though, but you have to be intentional about reminding yourself of the good things you are blessed with.