What I call my Gratitude Journal is a little over four years old. While I have done some journaling over the years, I have always lacked the "stick-tu-itive-ness" which is necessary for it to be a part of my lifestyle instead of a discipline with which I struggle. To some degree I have stuck with this Gratitude Journal. It is not an every day thing, but the entries have added up over the years. What got me started was my reading of a book entitled "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. In some ways she writes about her struggle to live with Ephesians 5:20 which reads, "...giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Most of us are like the author in that we, too, struggle to give thanks to God at all times and in every circumstance. We do fine when things are going well, but when hit by the hard stuff of life it is much more difficult to live with an attitude of gratitude. What has stuck with me over the years from the Voskamp book is that being thankful is more than something which occurs momentarily in our life, but is instead something which speaks of an attitude through which we view all of our life. Maybe it has been a word which has made me more attentive to what is really going around me which is not always what I am seeing.
It is easy to see the unspeakable suffering and the horrible tragedies which seems to overflow the quiet serene life we try to live, but it is another matter to see how God is using people to bring His work to bear in those situations we do not want to even see. Living with an attitude of thanksgiving is not something we can make ourselves do, but it is something God's Spirit can grow in our hearts if we will only give permission. The Word says that nothing is beyond God's ability to work good. We miss this part when we all we want to do is name and curse the darkness.
Most of us are like the author in that we, too, struggle to give thanks to God at all times and in every circumstance. We do fine when things are going well, but when hit by the hard stuff of life it is much more difficult to live with an attitude of gratitude. What has stuck with me over the years from the Voskamp book is that being thankful is more than something which occurs momentarily in our life, but is instead something which speaks of an attitude through which we view all of our life. Maybe it has been a word which has made me more attentive to what is really going around me which is not always what I am seeing.
It is easy to see the unspeakable suffering and the horrible tragedies which seems to overflow the quiet serene life we try to live, but it is another matter to see how God is using people to bring His work to bear in those situations we do not want to even see. Living with an attitude of thanksgiving is not something we can make ourselves do, but it is something God's Spirit can grow in our hearts if we will only give permission. The Word says that nothing is beyond God's ability to work good. We miss this part when we all we want to do is name and curse the darkness.
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