Thank You, God! (photo credit: Janet Sketchley)
Gratitude is more important than we realize. Here are five posts on the subject that have encouraged me recently.
Michael K. Reynolds tells us about The Easiest Way to Thank God.
At Reflections in Hindsight, Elaine Marie Cooper writes about Dwelling on the Good.
At Under the Cover of Prayer, Judith Lawrence reminds us of the value of prayers of appreciation.
At Hearing the Heartbeat, Carolyn Watts reminds us to look for God’s gifts in the moment.
And at Hope and Humor, Bob Hostetler gives us the prayer-poem, For the Day’s Graces.
So good to reconnect with Judith’s writing, Janet. Thank you for the links. Love the photo!
Thanks, Mary! The photo is my first experiment with the PicMonkey site, which has a lot more options than I know how to use :)
It’s actually uncanny how we end up thinking much the same thoughts at the same time, without colluding! I’ve been reading Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala, and was struck by his injunction to wake up every morning wondering what good thing God has in store for me, instead of wondering what bad thing will happen. I’m embarrassed to say it was a “wake-up” call for me. I’ve been consciously reprogramming my wake-up thoughts the last few days and it makes such a big difference. The bad things never happened anyway, but wondering about them at the start of the day kept me from noticing the good things. It’s fun to wake up again!
We’re definitely on the same sort of journey, Ginny. I’m getting better at waking up well, but there’s a long way to go. Asking God to wake me has been a big help. This is a neat idea, to wonder what good thing God has in store. Or to wonder where we’ll see God today. Good practice for our faith, too.
I just followed a link to Gratitude 138: Possibilities at Perpetual Gratitude, and it’s talking about waking with gratitude and praise. Worth checking out!