Happiness for Beginners

I recently watched this movie called Happiness for Beginners. It’s about a recently divorced woman who signs up for a beginner’s hiking excursion to break out of her rut and figure out her life. In the movie, there is a character named Windy who is always cheerful and positive. At some point, the other characters ask her how she maintains such a good attitude all the time, and she replies, “Every day I think of three things I’m thankful for.”

At church, we’ve been doing a message series on gratefulness. As it’s evolved, it’s taken us on a journey from changing our mindset to being grateful and realize all the things we have to be grateful for to expressing that gratitude to God and others. I realized that even though I am very grateful to God and others, I tend to focus on the things they do wrong instead of what they do well…and for me. I wanted to take a page out of Windy’s book and spend time each day focusing on things I’m thankful for, because I think changing that mindset will fill up too much time to complain.

So, tonight at dinner, after we prayed, I asked my wife and son to indulge me. I shared three things about each of them that I’m grateful for. Then, I invited them to do the same about someone else. It was a little slow and awkward, as it has been with me, but they did it. It’s not an immediate switch, but it’s a start. I’ve asked that we do this every night together, so we’ll see what God does with this from here. I’m hoping, like with anything, that we’ll all get better with practice.