Five Minute Friday - Cultivating A Grateful Heart

Five Minute Friday is a special time set aside each week where, as our hostess and inspiration, Lisa-Jo Baker, puts it, "We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt...no extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation. Unscripted. Unedited. Real." 

Today's prompt is grateful. So...here...we...

Go!

I've been working on cultivating a grateful heart for over over two years now, and it still comes hard. Why is it so hard to remember to purposefully think of things to be grateful for? 

Ann Voskamp first challenged me in this area when I read her book One Thousand Gifts. Then I was challenged again when I picked up the One Thousand Gifts Devotional. I was spending nights with my aunt who was dying of uterine cancer. Late at night, or in the wee hours of the morning, I would pray and things would come to mind, and I would write them down. But, when things took a turn for the worse, I guess I got side-tracked and never picked it back up again.

And it's not that I'm not grateful. I am grateful. For many things. But, I no longer write them down and journal them like I used to. And it's such a blessing to go back and be reminded of all the wonderful things that the Lord has done in my life. Perhaps now is the the time to, once again, start purposefully counting my blessings and writing them down. I might as well start right now.

One Thousand Gifts -

1) moonlight 

2) the stars

3) the beautiful white irises that are blooming in our front yard

So, what about you? What are you grateful for? 

Stop!

Until Next Time...

~Rebecca