Funny the way it is....Sing to me Dave cuz I see lots of Funny the Way It Is stuff.
Funny that when you open your heart back up to gratitude you find more and more things that make you grateful.
Take for instance that big one of this week. Last Friday, Lily had her phone stolen at school. It was a tragic thing not because a possession was lost, but because her faith in people was cracked on the same day our sweet Stella had to be taken back to her original owners. (side note: Stella escaped Monday evening and came bouncing back to our porch. Tail wagging. Peeking in the sidelights as if saying: IIIII'MMMM HOOOO-OOOOOME!!! Then we had to take her back....again. It appears that she wants to live with us too. Prayers please that if this continues to happen that we can find a way to be her family. We miss her terribly.) It was a rough day to be Lily.
Monday afternoon Emma had her ipod taken. It wasn't considered theft because the girl had asked Emma if she could listen to it while they were in class. Even though it is a struggle to like this girl, Emma reached out and said OK. Never leaving the room, but walking across it to get a game to play with another friend, when Emma came back to her seat the girl told her a teacher had taken it from her. The information she gave was sketchy. The questioning was awkward and uncomfortable making it even more obvious the girl still had Emma's ipod. Needless to say she was livid and calling for blood. Emma just kept saying, "She LIED! TO. MY. FACE!!!"
Thankfully we had placed a tracker on her ipod when she bought it in the chance that she misplaced it never realizing it would in fact retrieve it from theft. The ipod did ping up at the girls residence. After a lot of conversations with IMPD about our rights (she misplaced the serial number) and with Mr. Terry the principal the girl's mother was called. Ipod is back in Emma's possession. But that's not what I am grateful for.
What I am grateful for is her reaction. Her mother required her to bring the ipod to school and personally hand it to Emma with an apology. Emma, who the day before was indignant and ready to pounce, extended grace. Thanked her for returning it. Accepted her apology and told the staff she had no intention of bringing it back up again. She extended grace. This is my gratitude for yesterday...and even still today. I told her I was proud of her. Emma in her matter-of-fact way simply stated, "I wouldn't want someone to hold my mistakes over my head."
Then this morning, Belle went bounding out to the van on our way to school. Daily she is dressed in the strangest combinations of attire. Emma thinks it's hysterical. Usually, it is! Today this made my heart glad. The sheer abandon that comes when she dresses herself. I love this and this and this, so if I put it all together I LOOOOOVE THIS! I'm grateful for her fearless ability to be completely and utterly oblivious to the suppose to's.
Funny the way it is. Funny that gratitude can come from the reaction of large life lessons that opens your heart a little wider in order to make you aware of the littlest blessings.
In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.
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