My Fitbit Died This Week

My Fitbit died this week. Some of you might know that I wear a Fitbit (fancy pedometer) because I like to track the number of steps I take every day. It also tracks my sleep, which either confirms or denies the quality of my sleep—good and bad ☺. It’s part of my self-imposed “healthy-as-I-can-be” lifestyle regime. When it failed this week, I was at a loss. A little …

For my blog topic, I was going to write about something profound. Something about what’s going on in our society and community right now. I’d been giving it a lot of thought.
Why do we judge? What is implicit bias? Why are we prejudiced? What is it about racial equality that some people can’t accept?

I’m not an expert, and the truth is that I don’t feel I’m qualified to talk about any of that. Try as I will, I can’t begin to understand the intricacies or the psychology behind prejudices.

I mostly hope and pray that I am not. Here is what I found that I wanted to share with you:

This Sunday morning I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations as I was prepping for church. It’s a country music station based in San Jose, CA and broadcasts a show that chronicles the top-30 country hits from the previous week (Lon Helton hosts for those in the know).

This week’s guest was asked, “What have you learned about yourself during this time of quarantine?” He answered, “Gratitude”. He was grateful for the small things, like going to a restaurant, connecting with friends, and more.

That started me thinking of the things I’m grateful for: the things I have, e.g. a working Fitbit ☺ but more importantly my relationships: my husband, my children, my friends, all of you, and possibly mostly importantly: my relationship with our loving God.

I have experienced a relatively privileged life, and I don’t mean economically, but rather in the loving, accepting relationships in my life. Love and kindness have been modeled by so many, and I hope I have learned to do the same. I am grateful for those lessons. In a world filled with turmoil and unrest, we, as humans, have an opportunity to model good behavior. We can create and enable those relationships.

Here are a few of my favorite thoughts about gratitude:
Gratitude Quotes

• “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
• “As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of a successful way of living. The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us.” – James E. Faust
• “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” ― Melody Beattie
• “Today I choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills my heart, the peace that rests within my spirit, and the voice of hope that says all things are possible.” –  Anonymous

Geoff Rinehart said this past Sunday morning, “We can hope and work for a better tomorrow and love like Jesus.” I am confident that we can all hope and work for a better tomorrow and be grateful for the goodness we've been given.

In His Name, Janet

Janet Starkey