Are you struggling to have an attitude of gratitude with all the day’s activities ahead? The “stuff” of life sure can eclipse God’s blessings for all of us. So much to do, so many people to deal with and a huge meal to prepare…yikes! Here’s a little lesson on being grateful that God taught me a long time ago.
In the ladies Connection class I have led for many years, we would start the morning off by taking prayer requests. One Sunday the Lord told me to start with a blessing report instead.
“What is a blessing report, Lord?”
The response He impressed upon me? “It’s just a little exercise to help your friends remember the good things that happened during the week.” But when I asked the ladies what God had done for them that week, they stared at me like I was speaking a language they could not interpret.
Like most of us do, my classmates were replaying all the crummy stuff that had happened during the week and could not think of one single good thing. To jog their memories, I asked them if they could hear me. Again there were blank stares. With puzzled faces, they looked at each other and then nodded their heads that, yes, they could hear me.
“Great,” I said, “thank You, God, that You have given us all the ability to hear sound!”
Next I asked if they could see me, did they have a place to sleep last night, was there food of some kind to eat where they lived, did they have a way to get to church this morning (even if it was their own two feet), and thank you, Father, did we all have something to cover our bodies before coming to church this morning! The blank stares turned into smiles as they caught on.
And now, all these years later, it is still the first thing we do every Sunday morning. They can’t wait to share what God has done for them since last week. Gratitude just flows from them as they share their blessing report. Perspective really is everything! They still have hard stuff to deal with all week, but gratitude helps to minimize the hard stuff.
What about you? What has God done for you already today? Or last week, last month or last year? There you go! Now be sure to tell Him and somebody else how grateful you are!
Meet the author!
Debbie Jourden is a follower of Christ, Mom to Gabe, Mother-in-law to Lisa, and Grandma to Chris and Caleb. She facilitates a ladies sunday morning Bible Study, a sunday night small group, and a Celebrate Recovery Friday night small group. Debbie runs two small businesses from home in her power wheelchair. A student of prayer who learned to really pray and trust in grief after the suicide loss of husband and youngest son…she is still learning.