I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful blessings.
It started as a simple conversation with a friend. It ended with her telling me about her profound habit. That habit prompted me to write this blog and copy her! I’m hoping you will too!! I will treasure this action, just as Marijo treasures her blessing bags!
Before I explain what, it is, I want to tell you why this is the perfect time to begin it. First, we aren’t too far out from our Thanksgiving celebration, and we are only one day after Christmas-then six days to a New Year! Perfect timing for this New Opportunity! A small but very significant habit of ‘counting your blessings.’ My ‘ New Year Resolution’ for 2023!
Back to Marijo. Each year Marijo gets a new daily flip calendar. You know the kind; it sits on your desk and says something encouraging for every day. Mine tells me a Star Wars quote. Of course, a Star Wars quote is useless for encouraging my daily life, although it is quite entertaining. No, she gets something far more significant and life changing. Her calendar has a beautiful quote, for sure, but then she makes sure she gets one with space on it to write out her own personal ‘blessing for that day!
Marijo has had some struggles in her life, like most of us. She made a decision several years ago not to allow the struggles to get the best of her. She decided that she wanted her life to be remembered by her sons and their families, as a life that was blessed and a blessing to others! That is why she writes her ‘blessing of the day’ on the calendar page. Next, she tears it off, folds it up and stores it in a bag she marks with the year. At the end of each year, she seals the bag and labels it with the year, storing it away for the future. Sometimes she goes back into older blessing bags and reads some of the blessings to be encouraged. Usually at the end of each year she takes some time to read them and remember how the Lord blessed her throughout the year.
We make choices in our lives every day. One of the choices is ‘how will I present my life to those around me?’
Her choice struck a chord with me! I will begin January first writing a blessing on a daily flip calendar. I will have the date and year on it already, so I just need to write my daily blessing on it, then tear it off and bag it. I expect that I will take mine out at the end of each year and read them. I imagine that is a very encouraging and worthwhile ‘end of the year tradition as you realize the goodness of God EVERY day of our lives. I am sure there are other ways to do the same thing. Maybe write in a journal, maybe notes in your phone or day planner. This intrigued me because we often save, and box up so many papers at the end of the year, bills, taxes, correspondence and we never go back to them until the time we decide to toss them out, shredding them first, of course. But this type of written page is the ‘gift that keeps on giving’ as we can read and re-read them again and again and our spirit is encouraged. Hmmm, maybe this is one of the ways the Bible tells us to “encourage yourself in the Lord.”
Oh, by the way, Marijo was the coordinator of a major fund-raising event that blessed many others in her community. I cannot help but think that her efforts may have been motivated by the many blessings she had written down over the years. A positive outlook is a productive motivator! Blessings in your New Year!
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