When Lent approaches, many people take things away to help bring them closer to God. Social Media, chocolate, caffeine, the list goes on and on. I've found over the years that craving chocolate for 40 days does absolutely nothing to draw me closer to God. It does bring me closer to Dove chocolate, which culminates in a good 24 hour binge of chocolate eating on Easter Sunday. I'm still not sure how this brings me closer to God....
Years ago, I decided to start adding something to my life in Lent. Something to help draw me closer to God every day. Something I should be doing, but don't always do. Praying, Bible study, mediation, the list goes on. Over the years, I have always done something to help me walk a little closer to God.
This year, I am going to be keeping a Gratitude Journal.
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| Inside the front cover of my journal. I've got a plan for the front cover, but it won't be ready until tonight, we will be burning the palms from last year to make the ashes for the Ash Weds. service tomorrow. |
40 days of thankfulness of the things I am thankful for. I can draw a picture, take a picture, add a memento, etc., but each item that goes into my journal must have a quick sentence or two, telling why I am thankful, what great thing it represents, or it's significance to my life.
Can you imagine? 40 days of focusing on finding the good in my life.
I try to do it here. I really do search for the good and the funny as much as I can, or else I find myself spiraling down into a bottomless pit of depression and bad thoughts. Not every day is a good day, but every day has something good about it. The sunrise. (Hey! I'm here for another day!) The sunset. (I survived this day. Tomorrow is a new one, with no mistakes in it yet!) The amazing kids I work with, my own children, the lady in the grocery store who hands her extra coupons to people in the check out line. The young man with Down's Syndrome who bags at the grocery store and always has a smile and a positive thing to say to every person who comes through his line.
If you are a Christian, and you are looking for a way to observe Lent this year, I invite you to join me in keeping a Gratitude Journal for the next 40 days.
What a difference we can make in the world when we focus on finding the good in the world around us.
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| I added this to my journal last week. One of my little girls made this for me. She came to this country 4 years ago from an orphanage. When she came, she couldn't walk, or hold up her own head. After running down the hall to come to class, she made this bracelet for me, all the while chatting about what she is learning in school, and the latest book she was reading. What a gift this young lady is. And what a gift her family is to this young lady. |
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