20{4}40

One curled in the rocker, one sprawled on the couch, one deep in the leather chair and then there's me.  We meet in the morning to read and reflect.  I've know these souls since they came into being in my body, we are a part of each other.  They are so much a part of me that when I suggest something new, one agrees to go along with the idea even if she doesn't like it.  "Not to offend you, but sometimes you start something and then a few weeks later it goes away."  Ah, smart kid...and ouch, but that's another topic for another time.

This morning we decide to Psalm 150.  We each get out our notebooks, mine with the brown cover and bright floral pattern.  I read the Word and they listen, pens in hand, notebooks across laps.

1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
†Psalm 150

Pens write steady as we reflect on the verse and note its application into our own lives. Next, we open our gratitude journals, mine with the blue cover and green flowers; it reminds me of an old 1960's pillow case.  But before they can write, I slowly start thinking out loud.  "Lent is forty days right?  And what would happen if we listed twenty things we are thankful for each day?  At the end of Lent, on Easter Sunday, we would have a gratitude list of 800!"  I'm talking faster and louder now.  "Can you imagine a list of 800 written words of gratitude in a short forty days?!"





How might this change our Lent?  We've already begun weeding out complaints, criticism and gossip.  Weeding the garden of soul is a good start, but now we will be planting the seeds of gratitude.  Seeds that will bloom long after a Lenten challenge has passed.  I am 39 years old and just now learning, {the hard way I might add}, the profound effects of gratitude.  My mother's heart wants more for them.  I want them to form the habit of thanksgiving while they are young and easily malleable.  I want them to learn true joy comes from appreciating what you already have and where you are, and who you are, before they fall prey to the evil lure of wanting more, bigger, better, faster."

Will you join us?  Will you take up the challenge of listing 20 things a day from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday?  Will you pull the weeds of discontent and sow the seeds of gratitude for 40 days straight?  We challenge you to make your list of 800 right along side us.  Celebrate the resurrection of the life you have been gifted on the day of joyful praise for the Resurrected Jesus.  He came that we might have an abundant life!

You may copy this picture to use if you want to join us. But please, give credit where credit is due. {In thanksgiving to Ann for her inspiration of gratitude.}


? Are you in?