Skipping on the Yellow Brick Road of Gratefulness

Hey, I wanted to share something that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. I was really struggling with my mindset and keeping myself in a place of thankfulness. My mentor shared with me an exercise that really helped turn things around for me and refocus my mind that I’d love to share with you.

The Speed Highway vs The Yellow Brick Road

I’ve been framing my journey as a pathway that could take two forms. The first form could be a speed highway where I blaze over all the speed bumps and crash out. That’s when I’m trying to do things in my own power and strength. I steamroll through the little moments to get to the goal I am trying to create.

The second is the yellow brick road. When I come to opportunities that look like they might slow me down, I consider them as gumdrop speed bumps. They are divine appointments that create opportunities for me to be present in the moment and cooperate with the here and now.

When I’m on the speed highway, I’m anxious. I’m stressed. I am powering through. I usually am pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I’m frustrated. I’m upset. It just doesn’t work out the way I’d like it to work out.

When I’m on the yellow brick road, I am excited. I’m happy. I’m curious. I am looking for what God’s going to do in the moment and how he’s going to redirect me. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to show me next! It’s like I’m on a scavenger hunt and I find one more clue… that leads me to another clue… that leads me to another! It creates an adventure in life that’s positive, that’s joyful, that’s affirming, and that’s good.

I’d love to stay on the yellow brick road, but it can be challenging for me. I’m a planner and I’m a doer. I’ve got to slow down enough to cooperate with a moment and stay on the yellow brick Road…

Clump the Bad, Itemize the Good

One of the things that I found that helps me to stay on the yellow brick road is the exercise of gratitude. In the beginning of this post, I alluded to this. My mentor told me to write down all of the things that happen – taking inventory of the good and the bad throughout the day. I did that. What she noticed about my list was that I was clumping all of the good things and itemizing all the bad things.

For instance, if the baby spilled something, had a diaper accident, and I was late for a meeting, I listed those all separately. If I spoke a word of encouragement to someone, if I helped someone by listening to them, if I smiled and got someone to smile back at me, I clumped those all into the “ I was nice” box.

She challenged me to do the opposite. My job was to itemize every single good thing that happened to me or that I did. For instance, if I took time to listen to someone who was hurting -that was one item. If it encouraged them, that was another item. If that changed their mindset, yet another. If that led them to do other good things… then all of those extra things were itemized on my list!

In addition, she encouraged me to clump all the bad things. In my earlier example, all those things that were happening with my little son- I could clump into “the day didn’t go as I planned it” or “I was inconvenienced.”

Once I was clumping the bad things and itemizing the good things I saw a huge list of all the blessings that happened. I was able to see all the good things that I was doing. I saw all the ways I was helping and encouraging people that I had missed! I saw that the negative things were very few and far between.

Because I was looking for things to celebrate and be thankful for, my mind stayed in a place of gratitude and my attitude changed. My perspective changed. What my eyes saw changed. I could see things that I didn’t see before all around me. This kept me on that yellow brick road! It revived me and inspired me to keep on moving in that direction.

I want to issue you a challenge to do the same thing.

✨Itemize every single little good thing and clump the bad things into as few groups as possible, and see how that changes your day!

“…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5b

“Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:20