Happy Thanksgiving!

“Open for me the gates of righteousness;

I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.”

Psalm 118:19 (NIV)

Gratitude is such a powerful force! It lifts our perspective, mood and spirit. In fact, I believe it can usher us into the presence of God.

So I invite you to look for reasons big and small to give thanks today. The reasons begin as soon as we open our eyes and raise from our bed. We can thank God for another rising sun to light and warm our day, to ripen our food, and to cause winter flowers to bloom. Now you tell me, what you are thankful for today?

If you want to know more about the power of gratitude, and you missed my "Thank You Power" devotion earlier this week, pop over here to read it. I think you'll be inspired.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A friend's devotion

It was so touching to read your comments on yesterday's post ... to hear you pour out gratitude and see your spirit lifted in the process. Many of you have experienced great losses recently and you showed us how to give thanks in every thing, as is the will of God for everyone.

A girlfriend, Sharon Sloan, wrote this devotion below for Thanksgiving week and I think it points out an important truth: thankfulness ushers us into the presence of God. Blessings ~ Rachel

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.” Psalm 100:4

A heart of genuine thanksgiving and praise ushers us across His threshold so we can dwell in the Lord’s presence throughout the day. As we seek to abide in Him, our thankful hearts prepare the way for us. With a grateful and respectful posture before the Lord, we can expect to hear His still, small voice and sense His presence. “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His unfailing love.” Psalm 33:18

Genuine thankfulness flows from a humble and reverent heart before the Lord. As we go to Him with gratitude, acknowledging Him in all things, our hearts are postured to receive direction from Him. Then, as we commune with Him from the depths of our hearts throughout the day, we can bring Him our petitions, our fears and our struggles. With the humility of thankfulness as a backdrop, our hearts are poised reverently before Him. He will guide us and lead us. “I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.” Ecc. 8:12

When my children approach me with a humble and thankful heart, it is much easier for me to talk with them, rejoice with them, pray with them and guide them. Their hearts are ready. But when they are being selfish, stubborn, prideful and entitled, they don’t hear and are not ready for my instruction and help. The condition of their heart is key to our communication.

It is the same with us and our Heavenly Father, who loves His children perfectly. When our hearts are right before Him, He can minister His Truth to us and reason with us. He can encourage and equip us. He can commune with us. “He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:23

Let’s make it routine not just to count our blessings, but to continually give thanks to God for them. To acknowledge Him in all our ways. To bow before Him with sincerity, thankfulness and reverence. We will dwell in His presence, commune with Him and receive His encouragement and love. Then we'll have "sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” Col. 3:22

Thanks, Sharon, for the Word today.

Gratitude journaling

Welcome if you've found your way here from my devotion. Feel free to introduce yourself and maybe tell me what are you thankful for at this moment on this day.

If answering that question is surprisingly harder that you expected, maybe you should join me in staring a gratitude journal. I've keep one in the past and I can tell you it is certain to stoke the fires of gratefulness in your heart, and bring the many benefits of "thank you power" I wrote about in the devotion linked here. You just have to commit to doing it several nights a week - it only takes a couple minutes.

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you?'" ~ William A. Ward

So how do you start? Simple. First choose a book to be your gratitude journal. It can be a journal book, a small sketch book, or a small spiral bound notebook - whatever works for you. Just make sure you find it visually appealing. You can decorate the cover of a subject notebook if you wish- try ribbons, stamping, photographs, or maybe decoupage. If you do create yours, I hope you'll post a picture of it on your blog and then leave the link here in the comments so we can come see it. Until I see yours and get inspired to decorate one myself, I'm using the one pictured here. It's by Dayspring.

Place your journal beside your bed along with a pencil or pen. All you do is at the end of the day, sit with your journal and write down 5 things your are thankful for. Once you've completed your list, whisper thanks to God (from whom all blessings flow).

At first it might seem hard to list 5 things every day. Also, your lists might look the same a lot at the start, and that's OK. Just remember you can list "big" things (grace, health, family, job, friends) and also "little" things (bird you spotted this morning, the friendly waitress who made you laugh, the house down the street that looks so festive at Christmas time, minty-fresh toothpaste). Anything positive will do, so long as you can be honestly thankful for it.

What if you come up with more than 5 things one evening? Great, feel free to jot more down. What if you come up with less than 5? Look back over past entries and see if that helps get your mind going. You can always list precious promises like salvation or God's promise to never leave us!

My deal with myself is that if I can't fill a list of 5, I'll copy into my journal a verse from the Bible (like Psalms) that speaks about being grateful, or that gives me a reason to be thankful to God. I also enjoy including motivating quotes in my gratitude journal such as:

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." ~ G.K. Chesterton

The gratitude journal shouldn't take long to fill out each evening. And as the days and weeks go on and you make this a part of your routine, you'll find yourself making mental notes through out the day - I'm going to remember this and write it in my journal. That's when gratefulness becomes the lens through which you look at your day, and the benefits of "thank you power"start kicking in.

So give it a try and let me know how it goes if you choose to start a journal. If you don't plan to start one right now, just post a comment here and tell us what you're thankful for today.

1. I'm thankful so far today for a warm house on this wintery morning.
2. For the kisses my little boy just gave me.
3. For my morning green tea, and the health benefits it has.
4. And for the holiday coming on Thursday ... because while my husband likes the "routine" days of life, I like the "punctuation" marks like holidays.
5. I'm also thankful you visited!