Thanks Living—366 Days!

Thinking.
Last year at Church we were encouraged to give a gift to God. In my Bible Study part of Acts 9:31 (MSG) stood out to me: "They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. The Holy Spirit was with them, strengthening them."

For my gift to God for 2015, I wanted my heart to be permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. I plan to continue to strive toward that throughout the year ahead as well.

But I don't want to "re-gift" to God this year, so I have been praying about what gift can I give God this year?

A friend recently sent me this quote, "Thanksgiving is once a year. Thanks Living is all year long." 

Give thanks with a grateful heart. "Giving thanks always for all things to God." "Be thankful to Him." "With the sacrifice of thanksgiving." "That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works." "May cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God."

Thanksgiving.
"grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, especially to God." (dictionary.reference.com) 

Thanksgiving.
Giving thanks to God 366 days (2016 is a Leap Year).... seems like a simple thing, yet if it's so simple, why don't I do it each and every day?
This year, my Gift to God is a Thankful Heart. I want to learn to not only say "Thank you, God!", but I want a heart that is grateful to God and a heart that recognizes His work in my life.

Why am I posting this to my blog? Accountable. Call me out, if you see that I'm not being thankful. Challenge me to remain thankful all 366 days of 2016.

Thanks Living—366 Days!

Changing Habits

Not sure about you, but this last week of the year, is...well, strange. I'm winding down from all the Christmas activities, and it's not quite time to begin the "New Year's" activities.... then I thought why not?

Why can't I begin working on the New Year's Resolutions now? What is it about Jan 1st? It's not a "magic" date. "If you begin your resolutions on Jan 1st you will succeed". We all know that's not true.

This year, I'm doing several things differently. One, I'm not making resolutions, I am working on creating HABITS! I want to create habits which will have a positive impact in my life. 

My chiropractor has a very unique idea. He has 6 Factors of Health, which he's divided into the year. Every 2 months, we will work on creating a new health habit to build on the one created the months before. January and February the focus is Nutrition. I'm still working on my Nutrition habit, but it will do with eating proper meals on time. (I tend to eat when I remember or not at all... rather than when my body needs nutrients.)

I'm also creating a habit to be thankful. To help me with this habit, each day I'm writing down at least one thing for which I'm thankful.

Another habit I want to create is to be more aware of and encourage others. I have to figure out exactly what I want to do, and how to make it into a habit.

It's not about a date, or creating some unobtainable goal, rather it's about what habits do I want to change, or create. I like the idea of building on habits throughout the year. The end result is to become a better person. Maybe if I do it slowly over the entire year, the habits I create will actually become part of my life. Habits don't happen all at once.. they are CREATED.

Beginning today, I will begin creating new habits.

Creating a positive day is about habits. To make creating a positive day a habit, write down something positive about each day... then increase it to several times a day.. than as many times as you need to remind yourself that there is much of which you can be positive!

Thanks to Digi Web Studio (www.digiwebstudio.com) for the penguin artwork used to create this blog post.