Love, Grace, and Gratitude

The Brown Sugar Café September 13, 2021 4 Comments

There’s a picture in our guest bathroom that until a few months ago I never bothered to read. LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH LOVE, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE. It’s a simple message, but very important to how we live our lives. Imagine how different our lives would be if we made gratitude part of our daily routine. How much more pleasant would our day be if we filled it with more grace? Think about the positive impact we could make in the world if we become more intentional with spreading love instead of hate. In this post, I share a few of my thoughts on life with gratitude, grace, and love.

The next time you find yourself complaining about what you don’t have, try writing a gratitude list of what you do have. Start that list off with being alive and having another opportunity to be better than you were the day before. Waking up each day is plenty to be grateful for, but don’t stop your list there. Think about all of the positive things in your life and the positive impact you’ve made in people’s life. Be grateful for how far you’ve come and the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Be grateful for the people who are in your life and the people who aren’t. Gratitude comes easy when things are going well and when we focus on the positive things, but what about when things aren’t going well or the way we wish they would be? During these times, how deep do we have to dig to show gratitude? That may be a difficult question to answer in those moments, but looking back we’re able to find gratitude in the lessons that life has taught us.

We all make mistakes. Allow yourself some grace, make improvements, and KEEP PUSHING FORWARD! #BlessedForever
— Terrance P. Elmore (@TheBrwnSgrCafe) August 31, 2021

Grace is something that we don’t give ourselves enough of because of pressure from others and pressure from ourselves. Sometimes we have unrealistic expectations for others that we don’t realize until we’re in the same situation. We are all in different stages of our lives and our journeys are different. Some of the people we think are doing so much better than we are, are facing the same challenges and more. We compare our lives to what are just polished pieces of what they chose to share with us, not the whole picture. Grace is understanding that none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes, but what defines us is what we do with those mistakes. Do we let them hold us back and stop trying, or do we use them as lessons for us to grow and become better? I know for some of us it’s easier said than done because we are our worse critics, but looking back on how far we’ve come will make it easier. Tying our shoestrings was difficult at one time, but now we do it effortlessly because we didn’t give up when it was hard. That may seem small in comparison to life’s challenges, but if we remember that small things make the biggest impact it will be easier to live our lives with grace.

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

If you’ve been following my page for any amount of time, you’ve noticed that I am an advocate for love and kindness. When I decided to create this blog it was to spread some love in a world that seems to be full of hate. I started noticing more and more that negative and hateful things saturating social media and tv. Messages of love, hope, and positivity had taken a backseat to chaotic clickbait, sad stories, and negative news. This past weekend marked 20 years since hatred showed its ugly face on a stage for the world to see. It also marked a time when our nation came together, put our differences aside, and showed more love and compassion towards each other. The last few years have taught us that hatred never left the hearts of many, but only closeted its voice. At a time when grace and gratitude are more prevalent, division has become a pandemic of hatred and confusion. Disagreements have become lasting grudges at a time when love and compassion are needed the most. If we could just agree to be more kind and more loving towards ourselves and others, the things we disagree with wouldn’t be able to divide us the way that they do.

The next time life seems to get you down, remember to find gratitude in the moment and keep pushing forward. The next you make a mistake or a choice you regret, allow yourself some grace and extend that same grace to others in return. Find opportunities to be kind to others with compassion and love, you maybe the only person that does. Remember to live your life with love, grace, and gratitude.

I’ve finally released the Kindle version of The Essence of Love for only $2.99! Autographed copies are available in our online shop and unautographed copies are available on Amazon, so grab your copy.

Also if you haven’t already, check out the latest episode of The Brown Sugar Café Podcast on your favorite listening platform, click the follow button, and turn on the notification button!

Connect with me on these platforms: