Changing the Attitude of My Heart

This was originally posted on A Forum for Christian Women's Thankful Thursdays. I am posting it here too because this was a good exercise for me to do. It was a very practical exercise of how I started off with a bad attitude and stopped to think about how to change it before sinning. I will write an update about the "success" of the exercise and if it worked, I will remember it so that I may continue to practice running from sin and running towards righteousness.

Sometimes it's so difficult to find anything to be thankful for and today is one of those days for me. We've been reading through The Excellent Wife and Mrs. Peace talks about waking up in the morning saying, "This is the day the Lord has made, let me rejoice and be glad in it." I laugh because the very first thing I said as I rolled out of bed today was, "Oh, great, another friekin' dreary day!!!!!" So, today for Thankful Thursday I'm going to list 2 things that I need to change my attitude about and be thankful for.

1. DearHubby is still home, sick. I am frustrated and have been frustrated about him staying home because he has already used up 2 weeks of his vacation time (1 week for his knee surgery and this week due to sickness). The last week of his vacation will be used to work on the baby room in May, leaving no time at all to be home with me when I have our baby or no time at all for vacation the rest of the year. That's 7 months with no oppotunity to take a break. DearHubby is "sickly" and when he gets sick, he gets sick. Will he be able to go through 7 months without getting this sick again?
How my attitude needs to change: I need to not worry about his vacation time and be concerned about DearHubby's health. How can I help him today to find out what's wrong to make him better? How can I be more kind and patient? What can I do in the next 7 months to help him stay healthy?
What I am thankful for: I am thankful that I can trust God about all my concerns and when I do truly give those concerns to Him, He will give me peace about them.

2. Last night DearHubby and I kept each other up because we each had coughing bouts. So, I came out to the living room and slept on our hard futon and I woke up this morning with a really bad back ache. This past week my back pain has been very manageable, almost normal, and today will be one of those difficult days, not only because of my back pain, but because I also had very little sleep.
How my attitude needs to change: I need to take one step at a time and even though DearHubby is sick and he expects much from me, I need to kindly and humbly let him know that I can't do much today and in fact may need help from him too and ask if he is able to help me.
What I am thankful for: I am thankful for the strength God provides when we humble ourselves and make ourselves lowly. God may even provide that strength to me through my husband.

3. This is a true thanksgiving...
I am thankful for DearDaughter. As I drove to Bible study last night I just couldn't stop thinking of DearDaughter. I thought about how she can really push some of my worse buttons, but despite those things, I truly and dearly love her. When I got home, I looked at the pictures of her displayed on our piano and my heart just melted because I do love her. I noticed that DearHubby forgot to put DearDaughter down with her teddy bear, so before my bedtime I wanted to peek in on her and my excuse for peeking in was to bring her teddy bear to her crib for her in the morning. She is such a darling!

NOTE: I am glad I took the time to think about how to change my attitude and what to be thankful for. That has helped me set my heart right back again before sinning and I pray that the Lord will help me follow through with those convictions.