An Attitude of Gratitude

By Sarah McDonald

Just recently, my dishwasher broke. As I unloaded dishes (with heated on food) into my sink to rewash with my 1-year-old crying at my leg, let’s just say, I was not a happy camper.

But, as I washed two nights worth of dinner and breakfast dishes for my family of seven after a full day of work, all while trying to get dinner on the table for said family of seven, I had an interesting experience of catharsis.

With each clean dish, I felt my frustration melt away. Eventually, the baby got bored of crying and went to play with her brothers and sisters, and I got into a groove of stirring the pot on the stove and getting the dishes clean.

By the time my husband walked in, I was smiling and cheerful even as he said, “I’m guessing the dishwasher is broken?”

What I realized as I rewashed the dishes is that each dish represented the meal we were blessed to have. It represented the running water we have in our house to clean our dishes and, thankfully, to this mom of five active children – ourselves.

Having to repair the dishwasher represented the electricity we have powering our house making our lives so much easier than generations before us. In each of these things is a blessing that I gave thanks to God for even in this harried situation.

Sure, not having a dishwasher is an inconvenience, but we have one!

We have all these conveniences we take for granted. When they break, because it is not a question of if, it’s of course human nature to be frustrated and even angry, but really, it’s all about our attitude in the situation.

Let’s all work on adopting an attitude of gratitude in the big things and in the small things. It won’t only be good for ourselves but a great example to our children too!