Tell you what, folks. I am blessed.
I am also easily convicted, and more recently, God has blessed me with the desire to act on those convictions, not just to sit around feeling guilty. One of the more recent convictions came from a sermon during my church’s “That One Thing” series (which I’m linking here because I’ve mentioned it twice in the last two blogs). The main takeaway I got from this sermon was that living in the present is something God wants us to do, and present living inspires gratitude. But gratitude also inspires present living. But more than that, God desires a grateful heart. You cannot be sad, frustrated, hurt, angry, confused, envious, pitiful, disengaged, or a number of other ‘negative’ emotions while actively being grateful.
Additionally, while I was at training camp, I attended a breakout session on worship. Some of you are thinking, “Duh, you’re a singer, of course you would go to the worship session.” (You can find my response to that here.) But what I was reminded of is that worship is more than a song (Aren’t links fun? 🙂). We did an exercise were we wrote down a list of everything we could think of that we were grateful for, then in small groups, we went in a circle listing the things we were thankful for by prefacing it with, “God, thank you for _____.” It was a glorious way to worship – to put our focus back on God.
SO. I am officially commencing what I will call “GratiTuesday”. Every Tuesday, I’m going to take 5 minutes to just list what I’m grateful for, and I’m going to post it in my blog. This will be the only one I send out, but I want to post it so that I have some accountability. I’m hoping that by habitually engaging an attitude of gratitude, it will refocus my attention, give me some perspective, and ultimately bring me closer to God. You know what’s so cool? This week was really hard. God was with me when I made the decision to start this, and He is smiling now because He knew I would have to practice what I preach, finding joy in difficult circumstances. What an incredible Father.
I would LOVE if you would partake in this challenge with me, either on your own in a journal or phone note, on social media, or commenting on this post. Gratitude is worship, so let’s worship the greatest giver together. Five minutes is all it takes. Ready…set…GO!!
God, thank you for…
my earthly father, who loves me so much
blue skies
air conditioning, especially when it’s humid
challenging conversations with friends and family
for wisdom and perspective through reflection
vegetables
Sam the sous chef
my sisters (in Christ)
safe travels
COFFEE
the ability to exercise
feeling at home in Decatur
blessing me with a fiance who is willing to listen and submit to you
supportive friends and family
my niece, Kyndal
my nephews, Bennett, Dawson, and Joshua
my fiance’s family who welcomes me with open arms
my functioning computer
filtered water
good books, especially ones that teach me more about you
