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April 3, 2014 Please SHARE this new Precious Prodigal post: How can I be thankful when my life is turned upside down? http://bit.ly/1fRqTeP

James: 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

“I’m glad this week, this month, this year is over!” You’ve certainly heard those words; you may even have said them. But is that what we really mean? I’m not saying the past week or month or year wasn’t hard or didn’t hold some challenges. No doubt they did. But I’ll guarantee you they also had some blessings.

Three years ago, a friend of mine posted something positive on her Facebook wall every night in November. She spent 30 days listing what she was grateful for. I was both inspired and challenged by reading what she wrote. So I decided I would do the same thing for a year, starting in January.

I’d like to tell you I was thankful every single day and that I was faithful to post to my wall every night. But neither of those things would be true. I had some tough days just like you do, and sometimes those days stretched into weeks. And, in the beginning, I often just forgot to post what I was thankful for. It was a new discipline for me, and it took a while before I did it automatically.

But an interesting thing began to happen after about three months. Knowing I was going to post something each night caused me to look around at the world I live in and at my life. It was only a baby step from there to seeing and appreciating the beauty and blessings I enjoy so freely every single day.

Sometimes it was something big…I had an article accepted for publication or I heard from every one of my kids on my birthday. But often it wasn’t anything huge. It was the song of the mourning doves in our yard or seeing a doe with her fawn. It might be the feel of the sun on my face, the smell of a flower, or a friend who called unexpectedly. It might be a moment when I felt connected to someone I love, or it might be something that made me laugh. But every day, there was something.

It didn’t mean my life was perfect, and it didn’t mean there weren’t some losses or that I wasn’t concerned about some things. But I began to see each day as a gift and with that new vision came a new perspective. If I decided to waste all my energy grieving what I had lost, it wouldn’t leave me any energy to rejoice in what remained. And in spite of my losses or yours, there are things that remain.

According to James 1:17, God doesn’t change. If He is good and gives good gifts in the good times, He’s still good and still giving gifts in the bad times. We only need to open our eyes and look for them. Being able to see those gifts didn’t happen in a day or a week or even a month. But it did happen. And there is great power in seeing the good and rejoicing in it. Seeing the blessing of God in my life gives me back the power and the joy I sometimes let people take away from me.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, choose to see and rejoice in the blessings in your life? Can you develop an attitude of gratitude?