Endless Gifts in a Journal

I have often used gratitude to re-adjust my attitude. How about you have you ever started a list of things you are grateful for and realized that whatever is going on in life really isn't as overwhelming as it first seemed. I have just joined one of my favorite bloggers Ann Voskamp of Holy Experience in One Thousand Gifts, the Gratitude Community.

Actually, I started doing this a number of years ago, listing things I'm grateful for. I actually have a journal that is specifically for this purpose. A place where I have written the outflowing of a heart of pure gratefulness. How good it is to revisit these pages, my old friends. With a heavy sigh I realize,I have grown away from this habit. I am realizing as I read these entries that not only does my attitude change but so does my focus of life. My eyes focus heavenward to a God who is endless in comfort, mighty in His pursuit of me, and oh so loving when I am, oh so unlovable. What a wonder!

Here is an entry from this Gratitude Journal, it seemed appropriate for the restarting of my pursuit of gratitude. I encourage you to try it, I know He will forever change you and one day you will find that you look more like Jesus and what a beautiful image that will be.

Oct. 18, 2000

... I so need this Grateful Journal- It puts me back in the place I am best suited to serve my Savior humbly broken and sitting at His feet with unspeakable joy and gratitude for loving a sinner like myself. We don't often talk of gratitude like we should. We are selfish and often take the credit for things we could never orchestrate or even worse, we choose not to acknowledge the accumulation of all the little things which point us to our Maker.

There are 3 areas that I am grateful for:

1. Heritage: For me this isn't the earthly heritage most of us are grateful for because my family is dysfunctional and blended. But I'm grateful for the vision God put in my husband and my heart to aspire to our Godly heritage and to be "Repairers of the Breach."

" Those from among you Shall build the old waste places, You shall raise up the foundations of many generations and you shall be called the Repairers of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."

Isaiah 58:12

We will do all that we can to start and repair the Godly heritage that has been broken in our own families of origin. We are new creations in Christ and therefore we no longer need to be bound by what used to be, righteousness and strength of Godly character can begin with us, intentionally.

2.Simplicity:Life is complicated! BUT I don't have to choose to add to that equation. In fact I can choose something else entirely... This is a tangible blessing to us from the Lord this is His doing in our lives with out His guidance all this could be much different in our lives and I am so grateful for each day that we get to do what we do.

3. Forgiveness and Grace: There some relationships in my life right now that have shake me personally. I am so grateful our Lord loves us even when we are unlovable. Not only that he pays a debt we could never repay. His death on the cross is so hard for me to get my heart around. I'm learning that there is nothing with greater eternal value-nothing than God's grace and love. But its the process of learning to be like Christ that humbles me everyday, because I am SO NOT like Him! I'm so glad that His mercy is new each day. May I strive each day to treat those I love and care for like my Master and Creator treats me.

So change me Lord, from the inside out. Rub the grains of gratitude and rough away the hard edges of selfishness and self-absorption. I desire to see your fingerprints on my life Lord and in return I will praise you in acknowledgement that you are all I need. Amen