Gratitude Is Everything.
Ephesians 5:19-20
Speak to one another with the words of psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord with praise in your hearts. 20 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, always give thanks for everything to God the Father.
I started keeping a gratitude journal a few years ago. I log my simple and more complex thank-you’s to God into a simple app that I installed on my phone and Ipad. When I am happy for something good that happened, and am grateful to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or I just am down and have nothing to be thankful for, I make an entry. I have found that the more I am grateful for all things, especially the little things, I am much more at peace and happy. I also write, compose and sing christian recordings of my praise songs, although I cannot sing at all! I try to praise God in my own, private way. My life is markedly more rich when I practice gratitude.
Why not add gratitude, on an everyday, every moment basis? Find an app that you can install on your phone so that, like me, you can give thanks for all the little things wherever you are without need for pen and paper. I’m talking about when you find a great parking spot or the times you feel a connection to someone. The big things are easy to be thankful for, and the little blessings not so much, nonetheless you have to remember to log it into the app.
The app I use and appreciate the simplicity of is called “Gratitude Happiness Journal”, Self-care & self-affirmation by Hapjoy Technologies Private Limited. It is an orange icon with a heart flower that you can download from the App Store or Google Play for your phone or tablet. Search it there and when you do, you will see other similar apps that you may prefer. The good part is that it only stores it on your device, not some ‘cloud’ somewhere. and there are more perks so be sure and look around once you download it. If you don’t like this one, look around and find an app that better suites your needs. Or maybe You’d prefer the old fashioned (lol) way with pen and paper. I then would suggest that you keep it all together in one place- a notebook, a journal or a box of index cards. Use whatever system works best for you.
This is not just simply using an app, this is a way of thinking, a way of living. I find it very beneficial when things are going rough to look back on my gratitude entries, and see where I am and where I have been. Was I being thankful and grateful? Have I been In the past few days, weeks, even months. There usually is a direct correlation between my happiness and peace to how grateful I am, or am not, at a particular time in my life-space. It seems I quit logging oftentimes when all is smooth sailing- and then I fall in a slump. But by looking back on my log entries, I can see this quite easily and get back on track.
Yes, everyday, every moment gratitude is a way of life. When we are thankful to God it makes Him happy and we will see more blessings in our life. Will we notice the infinite number of blessing there are in our lives? I think so!
