A New Year Challenge

I was blessed with a very profound, beautifully written book for Christmas from my sister, called 'One Thousand Gifts' by Ann Voskamp. The message is meant to be life-changing, and one I intend to adopt for 2014!  Although it is a familiar lesson of becoming more grateful, much like Oprah Winfrey's Gratitude Journal, the challenge is to pay attention, record all the things you love, or perceive as gifts or blessings, and then to express your gratitude and thanks for them on a daily basis.  What this is meant to achieve is to make you realise that everything in your life is a blessing, whether good or bad. It has the power to change your perspective on things and erases all that whining, complaining and negativity from your life.  So much in our life we take for granted, expecting so much more than we often deserve, but when we focus our hearts on always being thankful, we will truly see God's grace in action. From a Biblical perspective, thankfulness precedes the miracles we hope for and is guaranteed to bring joy to your life. It is the means of living in the moment and experiencing a full, content life.

So in addition to wishing all my family and friends a Happy New Year, I also challenge you to start your own list of all the things you love...  I am excited to start this journey of developing the habit to become more thankful and I look forward to the joy it will bring to my life!