Waking Up with Gratitude
Modah/Modeh Ani:
מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה, רבה אמונתך.
Modeh/Modah ani lifanecha ruach chai v’kayam shehechezarta bi nishmahti b’chemlah, rabah emunatecha.
I offer thanks to You, God, for You have restored my soul within me; You God are awesome.
Modah Ani is said immediately upon rising essentially before we get out of bed and this blessing should be the first words we utter every morning. When we recite Modah Ani we are essentially thanking God for giving us another day. We wake up grateful instead of thinking about what may have happened the previous day and our first conscious thoughts are spent expressing, “thank you.” The blessing of Modah Ani is a nice way to wake up and remind ourselves to be thankful instead of thinking about the stuff that weighs us down. Basically, if we wake up with a feeling of gratitude, we feel grateful, and we can continue with a more positive day.
I believe that when we wake up in the morning we’re presented with a choice, we can say “This day sucks!” or we can say “Wow! How awesome is this day?” And even if we believe that this day sucks, it can be changed into an awesome day with a blessing of gratitude.
I understand that things are not always great and there are often rough times but it’s nice to wake up and kind of remind ourselves to be thankful instead of thinking about the stuff that weighs us down.
