Have you learned the “motto of discontent?” I’m sure many of us have. Maybe the commercials taught us this motto. You know, “you could be happy if you only had our product.” Maybe our parents taught us through constant complaining and wishing for more. Maybe it’s just baked into our society, rising from the yeast of desire. I don’t know. But it comes out in four simple words: “If only I had….” “If only I had” more money, then I’d be more content. “If only I had” more things, then I’d be so much happier and wiser. “If only I had” more time, more money, more opportunities, more…everything, then my world would be such a better place. It’s a life of dissatisfaction, craving, and lack of joy.

Those 4 words also have a counterpart that makes them all the more insidious: “There just isn’t enough….” That’s right. “There just isn’t enough” to go around. “There just isn’t enough” for all of us. So, the competition begins. I have to get mine before you take it for yourself. I have to work harder and faster to beat you to the “limited” blessing we both want. We horde (the toilet paper, the eggs, the bread, and so much more) and greedily store even more…just in case. Our relationships suffer as they become arenas of competition when “if only I had…” becomes the motto of our discontent.

Gratitude, however, allows us to see a different world unfold before our eyes. When we see through the lens of gratitude, our motto changes from “If only I had…” to “We are richly blessed….” We see abundance graciously made available to us in our relationships and our world. Instead of fearing “there just isn’t enough…” we recognize that “there’s more to come…” through the gracious abundance God has provided. Trust grows as we share abundance rather than compete for limited resources. Possibilities open up as we celebrate one another’s accomplishments, knowing that another’s accomplishment does not negate the possibility of our own.

Changing our motto from “If only I had…” to “We are richly blessed…” flows from gratitude. Changing our motto from “There just isn’t enough…” to “There’s more to come” begins when we recognize the abundance we see around us through the eyes of gratitude.

To help you make that chang, take time within the next week to sit down with your family and list the blessings you have. List all your material blessings from beds to homes to cars to…well, you’ll likely discover a seemingly unending list of possessions in your home. List your relational blessings too, from family members to friends. List all the blessings we so easily take for granted, like a beating heart, a good night’s rest, air to breathe, and running water galore. Don’t forget to list the blessings of nature that you enjoy.

As you can imagine, you will need time to list all these blessings. Take the time. Display these blessings for the whole family to see and review this month. You can display them in any way you choose—as construction paper leaves on an imaginary tree taped to a wall, as turkey feathers on your Thanksgiving table centerpiece, as graffiti artwork on large posterboard, or simply as a list on the refrigerator. Look at it every day this month and remember: “We are so richly blessed…” and “there’s more to come….”