How Gratitude Enriches Your Blended Family

"A single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer." - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Taking on an attitude of gratitude can do wonders for your personal relationships and your family! One of the biggest "diseases of attitude" is groaning. When you moan, you are not only focusing on what is wrong, you are also making sure everyone else around you is focusing on what is wrong too. The bad part about complaining is that you only add to whatever is wrong.

By changing your thoughts to what is good � in every situation -- you will now find out that every event is not on one side or another and it is your thoughts that make it a negative situations or not.

So, next time you find yourself not pleased in the way a situation was handled � learn from what happened and determine what can be done differently in the future. Stretch yourself and think of how it would be if you were grateful that the problem turned out the way it did. Maybe you can feel "spared" from a situation that would be worse. Allow yourself to genuinely feel gratitude towards what just happened and everything that it gave you - maybe you can locate the present in it for you.

At the last hour of every day, I review what happened in my day and think of ways to get ready for the next day. A section of my review is where I feel gratitude for the blessings I received � perhaps in the form of a phone call I never expected from a person in my vision team; maybe it came in the shape of book orders; or perhaps an email from someone who was touched by my newsletter. These things remind me about what I do and why I do it. By adjoining with the blessings that I am a part of, I get refueled for the next day�s agenda. Hopefully you can feel the same way I do!

Emily Bouchard, founder of www.Blended-Families.com, has a Masters Degree in Social Work and a Bachelors degree in Child Development. Bouchard is also a caring step mother to two stepdaughters. She publishes a free Blended Families newsletter. Website owners! Get a statistically unique version of this "attitude of gratitude" article for your site.