Thanks-Living

"I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us."  

--Isaiah 63:7

When I read the scripture in Isaiah I realized my sour mood from yesterday is only hanging around because I have the tendency to project the way I feel at the moment into the future and then believe something has to change before I can feel better again.  Believe it or not, I blame it on my optimistic nature!  It's also why I often get disappointed.  I tend to think it, whatever "it" is, will always be this way.  If "it" is something I'm enjoying and it eventually ends, as all things do, I get disappointed when it does.  So it stands to reason when I fall into a bad mood because I'm tired or not feeling well, I think that mood will last forever, which, because I believe things should last forever, it will until I change my mind about it.  Why is it good moods are often dependent on circumstances but bad moods aren't?!  The circumstance can be gone, but my bad mood can remain.

So, when the Our Daily Bread devotional this morning told the story of a woman who kept a jar she called her Thanks-Living jar, in which she'd put slips of paper with something each day she was thankful for, I decided I'd use this blog's sister blog, Another Perfect Day 365, as my Thanks-Living "jar".  As of yesterday I had no plans to continue that web journal this year.  But now I will write about something I'm grateful for each day.  I should think that would get me out of any bad mood I might have fallen into!

But I hope to take it a step further than just writing about what I'm grateful for because the difference between giving thanks and living thanks is action.  I can give thanks all day long for all that I have, but if I don't act as though I'm grateful, what good is it?  What are the ways we can live thanks? Here are a few:

• Be in a good mood even if you don't feel like it--it will give the people around you something to be grateful for
• Share the things you are grateful for
• Don't waste what you've been given, whether its resources or talents
• Bless others as you've been blessed 

The link to Another Perfect Day 365 is in the sidebar if you'd like to follow along with me on this year's journey of Thanks-Living.

Father, thank you for giving me this platform in which to learn to live more gratefully.  May it be a blessing to others.

Link to scripture: Romans 12: 1, 2

Take Action: More ways to live gratitude: Be a Blessing