Gifts of Imperfection- Guidepost 4 - Cultivating Gratitude and Joy...Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark.

We were pulling out of the driveway this morning on the way to school when I looked at the lawn by our back steps and saw this. A smiley face cut into the lawn. After a loud "what happened?!'' I noticed that my oldest had a interesting look on his face.. I knew it was him. He had been out trimming weeds the day before and the pattern in the grass looked like it came from a trimmer.

My first reaction was anger-what was he thinking?! Seriously?! I unfortunately responded initially with that. But then I started to laugh about it. My son said that he thought it would be fun to walk out to a big smile in the grass. And you know what? He's right! After all, how many other people got to wake up to a big smiley face when walking to the car to start the day? I thanked him for bringing a smile to us all.

In this most recent chapter, Brown writes, "In my own life, I'd like to experience more happiness, but I want to live from a place of gratitude and joy."

This was the decision for me in that moment-do I want to live from a place where I would take joy in my son wanting to share a smile with all of us and be grateful that he is living in those ways (especially since grass will eventually grow back)? That's the place I want to live from and the place ultimately I think God desires us to live from. After all, Jesus said he wanted for us to live an abundant life. I think joy and gratitude are great first steps toward that abundant life.