Every single day I start the new day by thanking God for the gift of another day of life.

That one little practice helps me start the day on a grateful note, regardless of what else is on my mind.

I want saying my gratitude prayer to be the first thing I do every day.

But there are times when at first my mind is so filled with trying to solve a problem or thinking of what I have to do that day.

Then I realize I need to get my priorities straight.

I know that every new day is a gift. It’s a gift we cannot take for granted. The older I get, the more I have this uppermost in my mind.

It is with sincere gratitude that I start the day by thanking God for this gift.

There’s only one problem with that. I do it so often that I’m afraid it becomes rote instead of a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving.

The same thing is true about prayers we’ve been saying all our life. I’ve been saying the The Lord’s Prayer — the Our Father — since I was a little kid.

When we say something that repetitiously we have the risk of having it become more rote than meaningful.

When I had the privilege of teaching youngsters in religious education class I was told to teach them their all their prayers. But first I had to make sure they understood what they were praying.

I quickly learned the fifth graders were saying the Lord’s Prayer without any clue about its meaning. No wonder. Some of it is not words kids use.

When I asked what the prayer means when it refers to the Our Father as hallowed, as in hallowed be thy name, not a single child could come close to knowing it means holy, sacred. It’s a request for God’s name to be honored.

A few years ago our pastor went through the Lord’s Prayer, elaborating on its meaning. He gave me a renewed appreciation of the prayer.

Ever since then, as I say the Our Father I slowly think of the meaning of each line.

That way, it eliminates just saying rote words.

But even my short thank you prayers are sometimes rote. I often have to back up and think of its meaning.

Even thanking God can be rote if I don’t think of the meaning behind the words.

And there are times like this morning when I do my morning walk without first thanking God for the new day.

But there are also days when I do get the full impact of what I am thanking him for.

I found taking time to say thank you can turn a negative mood into a happy one.

This week I was grumpy because having doctor’s appointments and other obligations was filling my calendar, making no room for the physical activity I need and love.

I pushed it all aside and instead concentrated on all the things that were good in my life. Honestly, it pushed my grumpiness away.

Once again, what it proved to me was that we can control our mood.

I like the old adage that says we always have two wolves waiting at our door — the good wolf and the nasty wolf.

Which one will impact your day?

The answer is it’s the wolf you feed.

Every day is precious. Too precious to waste.

But it’s all too easy to waste a day.

Despite my good intentions, I sometimes waste the day by letting anger or negative feelings color my thoughts. It takes a lot of mental discipline not to give in to anger or negative thoughts when we our feelings have been trampled on.

Sometimes I tell myself I will never give in to those negative thoughts. And I might succeed for quite a while. But we live in an imperfect world, and being human I sometimes fail in my good intentions not to waste a day by giving in to those negative feelings.

I think one reason why the book “Let Them” is such a success is many of us are looking for ways to control our negative feelings. And as the book points out, letting go of trying to control others frees us from wasting our own time by giving up trying to control others.

I often wonder why it takes so many years for us to learn ways to do a better job appreciate each and every day … to ask nothing of the day except to recognize it as the gift it truly is. Speaking of gifts, sometimes I benefit from bringing to mind my own gifts.

There are gifts we did nothing to earn, but they are definitely ours.

I think many of us find it easy to think of our shortcomings. But thinking of a gift we were given is a foreign concept.

What comes to mind for you when you think of your own gifts?

Come on. You can do it. Name a gift you were given.

Email Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net