The Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28

I noticed I have been clenching my jaw A LOT lately. The tension in my shoulders has caused a hump in my back, and my muscles just ache.

I started complaining to God and praying for Him to change the situations in my life, so my body could de-stress. But we are all in a time of added stress right now, even as we are tentatively re-entering society amid the changing landscape of the COVIC Pandemic. I have to deal with new fears and worries about our future.

God prompted me to slow down, take a deep breath, and start counting my blessings. As I began to ponder the benefits of the past few months—things like having enough time to finish writing my book, being able to take a deep dive into the Word of God, and extra family time—I felt a new, fresh peace come over me. The future seemed brighter almost immediately.

Over the years I have adapted a few different practices of journaling and praying my thanks to God. This week I once again applied pen to paper as I journaled some of my reasons to be thankful and worshiped God with reverence and awe.

Perspective is everything, and that is my basis for keeping a gratitude journal. Out of my frustrations, when I cried out to God, He opened my eyes to the blessings all around me. I felt a spark of hope for my future as the dread and fear seeped out of my soul. When I took the time to write down my blessings, I felt like I had a concrete source of assurance I could return to when things started ramping up again.

There are so many benefits to having a consistent discipline of gratitude journaling, so I want to highlight a few of them for you.

Benefits

• You will be happier, even when your circumstances remain the same.
• Lower stress levels.
• You will become more aware of what you genuinely appreciate in your life.
• You will gain clarity on what you want more of in your life.
• Clears the clutter from your mind, allowing you to focus on what really matters.
• It allows you to learn more about yourself and become more self-aware.
• It is a safe place to share your deepest thoughts; it is for your eyes only.
• It creates a physical history of remembrance. When you are having a tough day, go back, and remind yourself of the many blessings in your life.

It’s kind of silly, but…

Last night I was filling out one of my freshly created mini-journals, I wrote about the comfort my cat, Stella, brings me. Several times today, as I felt the tension in my shoulders set up, I thought about the blessing of having her for a pet and felt less tense. A small thing really, but the practice of keeping a gratitude journal brought this simple comfort to to mind just when I needed it.

So how do you get started? Here are five tips I have for maintaining a gratitude journal:

Maintaining a Gratitude Journal

• Start small. – I am using these mini-albums as gratitude journals. This way, I am only committing to a few entries at a time. If I want to do more, I can just make another one.

• Keep your journal where you can see it. – – I have mine sitting on my desk. Perhaps you might want to keep more than one and have them stashed in several places? Your office, purse, or nightstand are convenient places to practice the discipline of gratitude.

• There is not a right or wrong way to be thankful. – Use your imagination and come up with a system that works for you! Don’t stress about doing it right, just do it.

• Try to be specific. – Whether you write a simple statement or a whole page of gratitude, being able to express one specific thing you are deeply thankful for is more meaningful than being grateful for a bunch of general things. For example, you could write, “My husband,” or “The way my husband does the dishes when I cook. Imagine which will mean more when you read your journal later.
• Turn it into a prayer. – This is one of my favorite ways to keep a gratitude journal. By making my entriy into a prayer, I can pull out the what, why, and how it affects my life, and then thank God for how He blessed me.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of perspective. When I lose sight of my blessings, I pray for you to open my eyes to the grace around me. Even when circumstances don’t change, remind me that you don’t change either. There is such comfort in that. In Jesus’ name. Amen.