“You crown the year with your good blessings and you leave abundance in your wake.”

Psalm 65:11 (NET)

Another idea…make a gratitude journal this year. A couple of years ago I drew out the things I was thankful for. This year around springtime I began writing them down as part of the One Thousand Gifts project. A friend in college taught me through her example about looking for God’s gifts for us each day. She considered everything a gift and I do mean everything. I had never really looked at life that way and her perspective opened my eyes to that kind of seeing. Later on, I realized that my mom had been like that all along—exclaiming over the tips of new green on the trees and the garden coming alive in her letters.

The beautiful thing about having your eyes opened is you begin to see the layers upon layers of blessing that we’ve been given. You write out all the ‘big’ things—family, friends, job, home—and then you begin to see the ‘small’. Look at how the droplets of water form on that plant. That little bird sings outside our window at the same time every morning—wonderful! A cup of soup becomes a miracle, a hug wraps you with joy. It really is quite amazing.

Perhaps this is why the apostle Paul asks us to be thankful over and over again in his letters. “For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” he says. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) As we practice gratefulness, we begin to notice our souls brimming with abundance, and we learn that we were made for this.

♥

Any journal will do since you’re listing…buy one for a friend and tell her what you’re doing with yours as an idea to get her started.