It doesn’t happen by accident
Dear church,
On Sunday we talked about how to practice gratitude in our daily lives. Over time, that gratitude leads to contentment which builds joy in our lives.
Here are 17 ways to help build an attitude of gratitude:
1. Take turns sharing someone you are grateful for before a meal.
2. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, write down one thing you are grateful for daily on a small strip of paper. Fold those notes and place them in a jar. Beginning on Christmas through the new year, pick one day a week where, as a family, you read aloud a gratitude note and say a prayer of thanksgiving together.
3. During the month of December, call one family member a day and share with them that you love them and one reason you are grateful for them.
4. Write your parents a thank you note for no reason and mail it to them (even if you live in the same town!).
5. Begin a gratitude journal in the new year. Strive to enter one thing daily Monday-Friday that you are grateful for. Use a new paper journal or use an app to use as your journal (Notes App or Evernote App).
6. Be ‘slow’ when you say thank you. In other words, be very intentional and don’t rush ‘thank you’ in your conversations.
7. Be ‘specific’ when you say thank you. In other words, provide specifics as to why you are thanking someone.
8. Two primary obstacles to gratitude are forgetfulness and being unaware. Establish a time of day when you ask the question, ‘what am I grateful for today?’ Set an alarm on your phone, and put post-it notes on your desk, steering wheel, or refrigerator to help remind yourself.
9. Find something beautiful outdoors every day and breathe a prayer of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father for the beauty of His creation.
10. Read one chapter of the Psalms daily and highlight what the psalmist is praising God for and what the psalmist is grateful for.
11. Write a card to someone you haven’t seen in a while and tell them you miss them and why you’re grateful they are in your life.
12. Commit to spending one day where you won’t complain about ANYTHING.
13. Call someone older than yourself to thank them for their presence in your life.
14. Write a thank you card to your children’s teachers to encourage them.
15. Begin your day with a ‘gratitude quiet time’. Set your timer for 30 seconds and spend the time thanking God for the blessings in your life. Every few days increase the timer by 30-60 seconds until you reach 15 minutes of ‘gratitude quiet time.’
16. Call your grandparents (and great-grandparents!) and tell them you love them.
17. Create a gratitude collage. Once a week have everyone in your family place a photo of someone or something they are grateful for on a large poster board until the poster board is filled.
Gratitude doesn’t happen by accident. It must be developed. It must be intentional. The list above is a tool to help you develop gratitude and be intentional about building gratitude in your family. But at the end of the day, the list above is just a tool. If we don’t use the tools available to us, we cannot be frustrated when the tool’s intentions are never realized.
Let’s build gratitude in our homes, in our marriages, in our church, and in our community.
Happy Thanksgiving. I love you, church.
Pastor Daniel
(In upcoming issues of ‘Dear church’ we’ll talk about all that’s ahead of us this holiday season, the second most repeated command in Scripture, five questions I ask when I read my Bible, how I study for a message, and what a week looks like in the life of your pastor)
