Gratitude

My father has shared with me over the years many great snipits of wisdom and I can't tell you how many times I play them over and over again in my head. It makes me aware of how much our children do listen even when we think they are zoning! I am making a little book for him and inside the pages are the pieces of advice and the wisdom he has shared. This has been a work in progress for years...I cry a lot when I remember the drives and the late night talks and my heart is filled with gratitude. My dad says that gratitude is the secret to happiness...and as I get older I see the wisdom in this statement. I used to think he was...well let's just say wrong. I have thought a lot about gratitude lately. I see the numerous blessings everyday that I am blessed with and try hard not to take them for granted.
I have some of his words of wisdom that I thought were worthy to share with my friends in the blogging world.
1. No one is better than you are and you are not better than anyone else. People may be better at a certain thing than you are and in turn you may be better than them at something else...basically talents are given equally. It is up to you to find them within ourselves and master them.
2. When we stand before the Lord and we are held accountable for the lives we have lived, it won't be the bad things we have done that will stand against us as much as the good we choose not to do!
3. Someone somewhere has it worse than you! Be grateful for the trials you have to face...you could have had to face worse!
4. It is not a sign of intelligence to explain a complicated concept using big words...it is a true sign of intelligence when one can take a complicated subject and explain it in simple terms!
5. When you are down to your last dime...give it to someone who has less.

I jokingly tell Cory that he will be the defining man in his daughters lives and that their self esteem and sense of who they are and how wonderful and important they are will all come from their father and how he treats them and how he builds them up. That if he fails...they will have poor relationships with men their entire lives...he says "no pressure". In all honesty I know that my father and his opinion of me has always meant the world to me and the fact that he has always thought that I was all that and a bag of chips has made me who I am today and for better or worse I thank the Lord for such a wonderful father.
Today I am grateful for my dad. I am grateful and I am happy.
Later my sweet friends
smooshes
One L