If you have email, you have probably gotten chain letters and if you're anything like me, you are sending and receiving different chain letters every week. These funny, often cutesy or encouraging emails are usually meant to give you a laugh or a bit of motivation to take you through your day, but more often than not these chain letters are quickly deleted and forgotten. Every once in a while, however, a chain letter will get your attention and you will send it on to inspire others. I received one such email this week that had me re-evaluating my life and my attitude, believe it or not, and some of you likely got it too.
It asked us to re-examine what we are thankful for by stating it in an unconventional way, such as "I am thankful for the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat." I thought of this statement when I saw one of those television commercials showing the distended bellies of starving children in Africa and recalled it again just before I was about to complain about my food at a nice restaurant where I was eating.
Another statement from the email that really "hit home" was "I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home." After dealing with house renovations for the past few weeks, this spoke to me about appreciating what I have.
This new insight has made me realize how easy it is to find fault, even when we truly have nothing to complain about. I have been blessed with loving family and friends, a warm house, an interesting job and a good man to share my life with and yet I still find reasons to complain. I have decided to make a personal commitment to cut the complaints, nix the nagging and ban the bellyaching. Life is too short, and too good to "sweat the small stuff" like so many chain emails warn against.
The email that inspired me ends, appropriately, with this: "I am thankful for too much email because it means I have friends who are thinking of me!" So don't break the chain, especially the cute animal ones, I love those!
