Remaining Grateful

Today as I was done dropping kids off at school I was thinking about the fact that in about a week I should be driving my Ford Expedtion again(thanks to my amazing hubby and his generous parents). Anyway, I started to imagine for the first time the warmth, size and comforts of this modern car. I know that after some time has gone by all the luxuries will soon wear of , the kids will have made it their own, and I won't be as grateful to drive this car as I will be in a few days.
This same thought or feeling occurs often times when you go away from your home for a few days. You come home and have fresh eyes to look around the place or when your spouse or family member has been gone for a few days , weeks or even months. You have a new appreciation for something or someone that you might otherwise take for granted. It is something that is also talked about a great deal in a new book that I just read , "Living the Resurrection" by Eugene H. Peterson. In this book he talks about how we can try to cultivate the amazement and wonder that the disciples had upon seeing Jesus alive again after they had just seen Him crucified. He talks about how children are one of the greatest cultivators for wonder and amazement because they literally do see everything with fresh eyes and a completely new perspective. I am sure this is one of the reasons that Jesus said we must have a childlike faith. I started thinking about how often I have taken for granted my beautiful relationship that I have with Jesus and how I don't want that to become the norm.
My thought is how do we continue to keep looking at life in this way when the mundane of day to day comes everyday and takes over. I really don't know that we can except to make a commitment to not allow the mundane to take over and to pray that God change our heart and attitude about what we might otherwise take for granted.