By Lilly Lewin
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 The Message (MSG)
Sometimes it’s hard to be cheerful. Sometime even we Ennegram 7’s have a hard time finding the good in things and find it hard to be thankful.
As a person who deals with depression and anxiety, it’s sometimes easy to get stuck in a place of frustration and darkness rather than living in a place of light and thanksgiving. I don’t think our political climate, or the news help us either. In the past couple of years, I’ve needed to actually practice being grateful and look for the good news in our world. It’s about a month until we celebrate Thanksgiving here in America, so I am re-starting my gratitude/thankfulness practice this week and inviting people to join me. Each day I’m taking the time to write down what I am thankful for and actually taking the time to draw it out and post it on my Instagram @lillylewin.
#30daysofThankful #30DaysofThankfulness
I’d love you to join me in this practice and actually practice being thankful.
Take time each day to notice the things that bring you joy.
Take time to thank Jesus for the basics of life as well as the big things.
Get your family involved too! or your roommates or small group or your entire church community. Start now till Thanksgiving Day or start November 1st and go all the way to November 30th. Make a List! I’m doing a simple 3 a day, but you might want to list more. You could take photographs of the things you see that make you thankful, like your puppy, a rainbow or a friend’s smiling face! You could make a thankful collage, adding to it each day the words, phrases, and photographs of things you are grateful for, things that make you thankful.
And if you are looking for some good news things you can be thankful for, check out these videos and stories on line:
A reality TV star returns the favor….Watch Mike Rowe’s facebook video series
A former inmate gets a second chance…Playing Basketball
A seminary goes to prison…Northpark
My new favorite musical artist goes to prison to sing….Lauren Daigel
“Under the radar, some aspects of life on Earth are getting dramatically better.” Some Graphics
And finally, a great song that I’m thankful for.
I pray that these will bring you some hope today and you will be filled with joy and gratitude in the midst of everything.