Lovely day, isn't it?

Yes, yes it is. And this, my friends, is my revelation for the week. I'm not sure what all has been building up to this, but over the last week or so, my whole life has been shouting at me, "Enjoy this! Revel in the everyday!" It sounds really cheesy, like Joel-Osteen-esque or something. Maybe not Joel Osteen per se, but just any random ambiguously inspirational television preacher? Anyhow. I was just hearing a song on the radio the other day, one I do at least vaguely like, but I've heard it a few times more than a bunch, and yet for some reason the lyrics just kind of popped this last week. I'm going to just put the good chorus-y bit of the lyrics up, because it's the whole song most succinctly (I always spell that wrong!) worded (that's usually what choruses are I suppose), and because I think writing out parts of songs like the "Oh yeah"s and what not is silly. Apologies for the crazy run-on. Look up the rest of the song if you like.

It might not be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see but it's a new day...
And it might not look like a beautiful sunrise, but it's a new day....
"New Day" by the Robby Seay Band

It's a decent sounding song, but I mostly like the lyrics. And I think what it is for me is just that I don't nearly appreciate things enough in life. Yes, when I wake up in the morning, I thank the Lord for the nice weather if we're having it, and for a good night's sleep, and little things like that, which are well and good, but I feel almost as if I'm just saying thanks as a formality. As if someone gave you a gift bag full of junk you didn't really want, but you said thanks just to be polite. And how could I possibly have that attitude towards the Lord? I don't know if that's exactly the right analogy--I'm not displeased in any way in His gifts to me, but rather just apathetic. Like, oh cool, I'm still alive. I'm still saved. Thanks.

I don't know, this is all coming out jumbled. My whole thing was not that I'm not grateful enough (though understand me, I'm not), but rather that I should pay more attention to the little things He gives me every day. The fact that He gives me a day at all is almost astounding sometimes. And a lot of times those days just get completely squandered--I either do nothing productive, or I have no enjoyment of it. Part of why this is such a big thing to me I think is the whole non-schooling thing I'm going through at the moment, and it just feels like, since I'm not finished schooling, that I'm in a weird limbo, when really the Lord's given me this time for a reason and a purpose. What it is, I probably won't fully know until I'm back in school.

I learned that verse, Psalm 118:24, when I was a super small child, but I don't think about it hardly enough. So much of the time I'm complaining about little daily things, like traffic, like not-the-cool-kind-of-rain, like losing my keys, when there are really wonderful things to be thankful for. Like cold glasses of milk, like new plant sprouts, like a favorite old song playing over the intercom at the grocery store. Just little things like that. It sounds so sappy, but there really are little wondrous things all around of which I take absolutely no notice. I smile, I chuckle a little bit, and then it's back to the grind. I just feel like I need to be more aware of how good things are for me. This is the day that the Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it. That's once.