While getting ready in my bathroom this morning, I had to pull up on the door really hard to make it close. My husband spent Monday trimming two of our windows, but there are many left to go. The back of our house is still a shade of pink, while the rest is a fresh, beautiful white.

Today while pondering on these things, I realized that in spite of the negative items around me, I feel like I have an abundant life. I really do. It took me a long time to get here, but I’ve finally realized that I can look and concentrate on positive things while negatives are still present.

Our mentalities go a long way, friends. When we believe that we have an abundant life, we are better prepared to create a life-giving atmosphere in our homes.

When we were working hard to get out of consumer debt, my mentality was anything but abundant at times. I usually was thankful for what we had, but sometimes I just wanted to feel badly about the things we had given up or sold.

For three years we worked so hard to become debt free. Y’all, I was determined! That determination paid off, and now we have some breathing room that feels wonderful.

At the time I concentrated on my family and the “why” behind what we were doing. Really, these are the things that bring true abundance. They were then, and they still are now.

But whenever discontentment set in, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. Deciding to be positive made life so much better.

Getting up each day and deciding that yes, this is a good day, made the day good. 

Deciding that I was going to see abundance in the things around me made good things more clear.

We can choose to have an abundant life by seeing the blessings around us.

We can have an abundant mindset if we try. It involves practicing gratitude regularly and often.

My day hasn’t been perfect. But it has felt pretty wonderful by concentrating on things like my kiddos, homeschool successes, yummy smells coming from my crockpot, and tiny blooms starting to grow on my Japanese Magnolia.

An abundant mindset doesn’t have to revolve around money. It can totally come from simple blessings in our everyday lives.

I’d like to encourage you to look for abundance today. I know it is there if you look.