#3,955

I started keeping a gratitude journal soon after Geoff and I got married. Every day I would record things that I was thankful for from that day or simply from life in general. I noticed that I started paying attention to the world around me in a new way. I began not only to notice things to be thankful for, but to look for things to be thankful for. 

 Time went on and this habit of journaling sometimes fell by the wayside, but then I would eventually pick it back up, needing the fresh perspective that it offered. Recently, I went through a time of neglecting this discipline. The irony is that if I would have stuck with it, it probably would have helped me through some dark moments, not in an earth-shattering, this-is-the-answer-to-everything-way, but in a quiet, steady way, like the simple presence of a friend on a hard day. That's the thing about good habits or disciplines--they only work for us if we persist in them. They do us little good if we merely dabble. And they won't be there to help us when we need them most if we neglected them back when skies were a little sunnier, or told ourselves on cloudy days that it would take just too...much...energy. I've learned this the hard way and I am still learning it.

There may come a day when I move on from this discipline to something else. I'm aware that some habits may be helpful for certain seasons of life and once they've served their purpose it's time to move on. Keeping a gratitude journal might be like that--prayer on the other hand, is definitely not. But today, I know that I am helped by this record keeping, this scanning of my life for the gifts that keep coming, all reminding me of how God keeps coming for me, never leaving or forsaking. Indeed, his mercies are new every morning. 

Just this morning I wrote #3,955: For lessons learned and learned again.