A revisit with Gratitude

Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)

 Its been a tough season in our household the last couple of months.  I won't bore you with the details, but lets just say that we've had three major illnesses, one surgery, and many other life situations that have occurred since December.  I'll be honest with you - even though I feel that i normally handle these types of life events well since I trusted God to get me sober and since I gave my life to Christ, I've really struggled the last few months with everything going on.

After being challenged in my quiet times and while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, I began logging a prayer journal during this time, too.  While I haven't been able to do it every day, I've been at it quite regularly in the last six weeks.  Today, while getting ready for my day, I started writing in my prayer journal and that's when it hit me.  I've neglected practicing something that I teach to my kids, to my Connect Group and to people who ask me for advice.  I've neglected something I learned several years ago that was very valuable in my recovery.  You can even read about that something on this blog site.  

Gratitude.

I've not been practicing Gratitude much lately.  So what did I do this morning?  I read the scripture above and then completed a task that has helped me immensely over the years.  What's that you ask?  

A Gratitude list.

If you've never completed one, I recommend you go right now, sit down and write down everything you are grateful for. Its a very powerful exercise.  Today, I took 3 pages of things I'm grateful for.  Remember, I wrote this as a prayer to God, so a small sample of my list is:

• That You saved me
• That You saved my marriage
• Music talents in our house and regular worship time
• My grandparents are with You in heaven
• Davis' hospital bills are resolved
• I live in the south
• I have a good job
• You've given me a great mind, heart, body and spirit
• Spiritual gifts
• Our house and cars
• Great neighbors
• Family & Friends
• Great church family
• Revival
• Romania
• USA
• Love
• Faith 
• Hope
• Purpose

As you can see my list spans everything, from material things to spiritual things and from temporal things to eternal things.  That's okay.  Your gratitude list should be as complete as possible and may resemble similar things.

Scripture tells us to give thanks IN all circumstances (1 Thess 5) and to give thanks FOR all circumstances (Eph 5) and to make all requests with thanksgiving (Phil 4).  The result of doing that is peace in our hearts, that peace that transcends all understanding.  

We all go through tough times.  All of us do.  One of the last things Jesus tells his disciples before being arrested, tried and crucified for us was "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." -John 16:33.  I have found that Gratitude is a powerful tool that Jesus gave us for those tough times and troubles.  

I encourage you, whether it is a tough season or great season, to reflect on this.

What are you  grateful for?