Intentional with Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends. I am so very grateful for you!

 

Thanksgiving. A time to be grateful. A time to reflect on all my many blessings, thanking God for all.

It is so easy to take the things in life for granted. Precious things. Material things. People. Life. Friendships. Food, water, clothing, my home and family.

I want to be more intentional with my gratitude. Sometimes it takes hearing, seeing or reading about someone’s ungratefulness to wake me up to my own.

The woman in the booth next to ours complained about each item on the Thanksgiving Turkey dinner special. Her complaint was “too much of this” and “not enough of that.” The tired, worn out waitress listened and apologized. She’s been serving all day, busy from the start. Finally the woman left and the waitress came by to clear the table.

She came over to our table to ask how our dinner was and I said it was terrible, looking at my clean plate with a smile and a chuckle. She knew I was joking. She was friendly and had a good attitude. She mentioned someone wrote all over their receipt complaints about the food and service. I scooted over in the booth and told her to have a seat. We were towards the back, away from most of the action. Just as she sat down she said her boss was coming. So we invited him to sit with us too. They stayed a minute or so and we told them everything was delicious and we enjoyed our dinner very much. They thanked us repeatedly for being so patient.

I left there sad for the complaining customers. I thought of those who are shut in and would love an opportunity to go to a nice restaurant, regardless of any food. But maybe the complainers are hurting or dealing with a sadness of their own. But to take it out on the waitress?

I learned a lesson from this incident. I need to try to be more aware of my attitude when something like a food, a person or a situation does not meet my expectations. I need to try not to take it out on an innocent waitress or innocent person. Will you join me in being  more intentional with gratitude? Let’s make someone smile every day.

I wrote all over our receipt words of appreciation to our waitress.

God Bless you,

Barbara Ann