Attitude of Gratitude Fridays

During General Conference this past weekend several talks spoke to me personally. One of them was THIS talk given by President Monson. What a wonderful talk about having a constant attitude of gratitude in our lives. So, with his talk in mind I have decided to start my Attitude of Gratitude Fridays posts. I wasn’t sure where I would begin. I mean really, there are so many wonderful people that have blessed my life past and present.


Then at lunch with Regan today it hit me. I brought her lunch to school today and ate with her and her friends. Regan has a sweet best friend; the two of them are inseparable. This friend carefully took each item out of her lunch box and smiled when she saw a note. I asked her who had packed her lunch. She then told me with a HUGE smile that her sister had packed her lunch. You see, this friend’s older brother and sister pick her up every day from school and are a very important part of her upbringing. As I sat and watched her happily eat her peanut butter and Jelly sandwich lovingly made by her sister, I started to think of my own older siblings.


My sister would fix my hair before school and knew just how to tease my bangs to get them nice and high. She would often time pick me up from school and watch me until my parents came home. My own Big Bubba would also pick me up from school in his old beat up pickup truck that we lovingly nicknamed “spot”. I will never forget the night that he was watching us young kids and he did not want to cook. We all wanted pizza for dinner. So, he brought out my parent’s HUGE penny jar that they kept in their closet. He told us that if we wanted pizza we had to starting rolling pennies. I will never forget the look on that poor delivery boy’s face when my brother handed him around twenty dollars in pennies. Oh, it was priceless!!! It was primarily the two oldest out of the five children that were responsible for the rest of us while our parents were working or while my mother was at school. They were at times unhappy about the tasks that they were given BUT they took care of us. They loved me enough to make sure that I had food to eat, got home safely from school, and started my homework.


I am so grateful for their loving acts of kindness to me as a child. I am grateful that I never had to sit outside of the school crying because no one loved me enough to pick me up. {Ok, maybe one time.. wink!} I am grateful that pizza was ordered, macaroni was made, or left overs were reheated so that I wouldn’t go hungry. I am grateful that despite not always loving the demanding task of being an older sibling they always stepped up and did what needed to be done. At times doing what needed to be done meant that they missed out on something fun with their friends.


So, with all of this said…… I want to say Thank you to my wonderful older sister Michelle and BIG Bubba Mark for all that they did for me while I was growing up. I did not realize at the time what sacrifice and love it took to do the things that you were asked to do. THANK YOU!!!

{Oh, and to my sisters Nancy and Karen…. You are pretty OK too.. wink!}