Gratitude

When I am under stress, I easily become frustrated with the world—and usually the people around me. For instance, I find myself blaming drivers in front of me, like they purposefully sought out my car, knowing I was in a hurry, and decided to drive 5 miles under the speed limit in front of me on a one lane street. This has happened often on my way home driving down Church Street. Usually, just as I am about to lay on my horn and whip around the car in the opposite lane, I will see a police officer down the road monitoring the speed limit with a radar gun. I immediately think to myself, thankfully the person in front of me was going so slow, or I would have probably gotten a ticket. As I decelerate to 5 miles under the speed limit, my stress level also decreases.

While I don't believe God bothers himself with getting me out of traffic tickets, I do believe He is constantly sending me the message that the path to patience starts with gratitude. It becomes more difficult to be upset with the world around us when we recognize the many gifts we have been given. One prayer process I like to use that helps remind me to give thanks to God is from Matthew Kelly’s book The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. The process involves the following steps: 

As we approach Thanksgiving and continue our school food drive—we are well on our way to reaching our goal of 10,000 food items—I challenged the students to take one minute each day when they wake up and thank God for three things. My hope is that with our gratitude we can change our attitude.