From grumpy to grateful

I woke up this morning and I was a grump. I'm tired, for one thing, and every other possible reason for my grumpiness I'll just chalk up to a bad attitude on my part.

I wasn't especially thrilled to begin the day that stretched out before me. As I got out of bed, do you know what song came to mind? This one. I thought it was a little humorous, actually. That song, on a day when I felt so grumpy. I shrugged it off and went on my merry grumpy way.

My plan was to read a bit in the Bible and then pour all of my grumpiness into a journal entry. I turned to the Psalms to pick up where I'd left off.

Psalm 138.

It begins: "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart."

Now. I know Psalm 138 says much more than that but I wouldn't know what, exactly, because I didn't make it any further than those first ten words. And really, just those first four words were exactly what God wanted to speak to my heart this morning.

I will praise you.

I wanted to come to Him and pour out all my stuff, and He gently reminded me to praise Him.

I didn't particularly feel so praise-filled at that moment. But then, it doesn't say, "I feel like praising you." It says, "I will praise you." Well, then. Okay. I accepted His call to praise, if a bit reluctantly.

The twenty minutes I took to write down a list of praises completely changed the course of my day. It changed my grumpy spirit to a grateful one.

It's such a simple thing, really. Praise. Thankfulness. Gratitude. [Which begs the question, "Why, then, am I so quick to forget it?" I'm quite sure if you dug through the archives here on this blog you could find any number of posts that are nearly exactly like this one.]

I am counting my many blessings today, and I am praying that God will shape me to be a woman who has a heart of praise.

Oh. And before you click away?

Here's just one of my many blessings: