The theme of gratitude had been appearing in many ways over the past few months. One phrase I have seen and heard throughout the summer is from Author and Speaker Jon Gordon. “You can’t be thankful and stressed at the same time.” It made total sense to me, but I didn’t put it into practice.
Since then, I’ve heard that quote repeated a few times, and I’ve seen many memes talking about gratitude floating across my social media feeds. It wasn’t until I had a vehicle issue that I fully understood the impact of intentional gratitude.
My Durango needed some new tires, so we went to a shop and had them do an alignment as well. The Sooove (our name for the Durango) was running super smooth. It didn’t last, though. The first issue was a brake that was hotter than the rest. Then came a little squealing at times, which progressed to horrible grinding. I was told it was ok to drive it, but after a trip to the Cities where it sounded like the whole metro area could hear the grinding, we decided we needed it fixed. After two days in the shop, we had her back. I had a meeting 30 miles away, and everything seemed fine on the way there. On the way back, something sounded odd. The following day, as I was leaving for a meeting 90 minutes away, the other rear tire made a clunking noise, but the tire looked fine. I got six miles from home, stopped at a stop sign, and couldn’t roll forward. Something was stuck on the back tire.
My first call was to Jonathan, who is a saint. I used my entire vocabulary to express my displeasure. He brought his pickup down for me to use and asked our employee, Kevin, to help him get the Sooove back home.
I was still pretty hot under the collar once we swapped vehicles, but suddenly I had a lightbulb go off in my head. I may have been rather inconvenienced, but nobody got hurt when the caliper got stuck between the rotor and the rim. This didn’t happen when navigating curves in the rain on unfamiliar roads. I had another vehicle I could use, and because it happened so close to home, I didn’t lose much time. I had so many things to be thankful for in that moment of extreme stress. When I started listing them, my heart rate slowed, my breathing was more relaxed, and I felt much more at peace. The difference in my attitude was profound. Just by listing the things I was grateful for.
Since then, I have made it a point to focus on gratitude when I feel stressed. What do I see, feel, taste, hear, or smell that I am thankful for? The last few weeks have been much more pleasant by focusing on those things and not the list of things that make me stressed and anxious.
As a woman of faith, this concept should be familiar. We are instructed to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18). Sometimes, though, it takes a brake problem to get you to stop and realize how important it is to focus on gratitude.
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