The spirit of gratefulness

I had the joy of sitting down with John Ott this morning.

We talked about various things obviously but eventually it whittled down to a very specific question that he asked. "Fred, what do you think made your time at Starbucks so fruitful?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"Being at Starbucks helped to show just how much pride I had inside of me."

I didn't realize it at the time, but a lot of my pride came for straight up ungratefulness. I had a good family, good health, and few obligations but all I kept thinking about was how crappy my job was and how porcupine kept playing games with me. It was only when I was cognizant of this that I reached a point of true humility. It was after my heart was in that place that God could begin construction on my new foundation.

This is noteworthy because John started sharing with me that because it's a lesson that's been so deeply ingrained in me, it is something I'll be able to identify with scintillating precision in other people. And the more I explored that thought, the more I've found it to be true.

Being human, it's appropriate to feel frustrated or lonely or forgotten when times get really tough. But the difference with someone who is grateful and someone who isn't is that there's a spirit of peace and a spirit of "these circumstances will not deter my perspective"

And these people stick out.

And they're the people you're grateful for.

Because their gratefulness is inspiring.