Grateful?

A friend and I were talking the other day about trying to teach our kids the virtue of being grateful. It's much harder than I anticipated. But I'm keeping at it - after all, endurance is also a virtue.

It does seem when I'm trying to teach my kids a specific something, I start noticing shortcoming in the same area. For example, recently I've really been trying to get Nolan to see my point of view when it comes to our "need" of a bigger house. After all, we are expecting baby #4. We currently live in a 3 bedroom house. I have NO problem with kids sharing rooms - but my issue is our living room - it's tiny and there is no other "bonus" space except for the yard - which is great when the Panhandle weather cooperates. But, when you get that much energy in such a small space the result is nothing short of chaos and tears. Unfortunately several years ago I made an innocent comment about how my aunt and uncle raised 9 kids in a 3 bedroom house and all their kids turned out just fine....Nolan has never let me forget that - or the fact that anyone living in any foreign country raises their families in half the space that we have. I keep reminding him that we do not live in a foreign country. Of course all my friends agree with me - we have to have more space - if it seems a little tight now - we're gonna bust out the seems in a couple of years when the youngest of our little brood really gets going. So we've started looking - but I've been given some ground rules in advance - (1) it is going to have to be an amazing/once in lifetime kind of deal before he's interested; (2) we will not take out more than a 15 year mortgage - and that mortgage will fit easily in our budget; (3) it's probably not going to happen.

I took those "rules" in stride, all the while thinking I can convince Nolan of our need in due time. Now here's where God hit me with the virtue of gratefulness. Am I grateful for the adorable home that we have? Am I grateful that I have a husband that believes in living within our means? Am I grateful for the love and joy that come from family - even if it also comes with chaos and tears? Am I grateful for LIFE?

So I've continued to happily drive by homes for sale - occasionally looking in one. I've also researched the possibility of adding on to our current home. But in the meantime, I've been working on changing my attitude to one of being grateful for where we are, what we have, who we are and WHOSE we are - instead of constantly thinking "if only." So have I achieved "gratefulness"? Well like I said in the beginning - it's much harder than I anticipated, but I'll keep on trying. And, for now, I believe my attitude is much better - now we'll see if I can teach my kids that same lesson - after all one of the Christmas toy catalogs came in the mail yesterday - and for not being able to read yet, they sure have lots of things circled that they have "wanted my whole life mommy!".