Think about it: Your Thanksgiving List

If you started to keep a thanksgiving list of ten items per day between now and Thanksgiving you would have 250 items on you list. Imagine what you could share at the table. They are two hundred fifty ways God showed His glory in your life.
How could sharing even ten of them change the lives of those you tell them to? If nothing else, they would be more apt to start paying attention in their day to see what God is doing.
Then, imagine one year from now, you would have a minimum of 3,650 items.
How could your life ever be the same?
Imagine how on a bad or tough day, you could look at that list. And you can even return to your list and look back on the days when God seems far away.
Then, imagine after ten years, you would have 36,500 items on your list.
For me, I have about another forty years to live. That is 365 x 10 x 40 = 146,000.
What about giving a copy to every one in your house each year, or those closest to you, as a gift?
Think of every good thing that could come from this.

-- Stacy Duplease
Sent from my Fire.
Blog: agodlyvision@gmail.com

A Daily List of Blessings List

Add to a list every day of at least ten blessings you count in your life today and from the past. Make them new and unrepeated from earlier items. See how many blessings you can count for the rest of your life.

-- Stacy Duplease
Sent from my Fire.

1 What’s the Secret of Life?

What’s the secret of life?

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve missed it somehow. There’s always this sense of something more and of something different. It feels like there should be more to this existence than what I’ve found. There’s got to be more to life than this. There’s got to be more to life than a getting by existence. There’s got to be more than busyness.

What really matters? How do I live the best life possible? How do I live smack-dab in the middle of God’s will each and every day, all day long? And, Lord, how on earth do I stop this pain? What about this emptiness? Why can’t I get enough? Why am I always getting so side-tracked?

Why am I not getting enough out of my prayer life? My Bible reading? My Bible study? My life?

What’s wrong with me? My life is a good one. I count myself blessed. But, I feel stuck.

Questions are forever bubbling up inside of me. How do I find the answer, the Answer, once and for all?

Somehow, it all seems connected, doesn’t it?

What is the secret?

Is it different for me than it is for someone else?

How can I find the beauty in my life, even on the not so beautiful and dark days? And, how can I find such beauty, sacredness, and wonder that others find it catching from me?

The answer is Jesus. Yes, without a doubt. The Answer is found in Him and in the Bible. Yes. No doubt. No question. No arguments either. However, how does my faith in Jesus Christ, and in the Bible, provide me eternal life today, where I am, and what does that mean? In other words, how can I find heaven on earth? How can I live fully in the present? How can I live an intentional life that finds the beauty in the small stuff and in the big?

How can I heal from this wound? How can I let go? How should I live? How can I find wonder in my life? How can I find joy? How can I slow down and find the peace and joy that I am aching for?

How can I fully live today in the midst of a trying, busy, challenging life? How can I fully embrace the grace God has given me and live for eternity today?

How, Lord?

Can I?

How can I know the full and abundant life? How can I know You fully on this earth, Lord? Can I today?

Show me the way, Lord.

WELCOME

Welcome to my journey of learning the secret of how to live a full, abundant, eternal way of living life through a very challenging time in my life. This is my story, sure, but it is far more than that. This is my prayer journal, but it’s more than that.

This is a book for you to learn how to live a life of joy and a fullness of grace in our life today—not tomorrow. It is attainable. It just requires some intentionality on our part. We can live a for God in a whole new, deep way.

His love endures forever. Even when we don’t feel it. Even when a trillion questions swirl in our loud minds and busy lives. How can we grab hold of this, remember it, and live it?

1 Chronicles 16:34--Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB):

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;

His faithful love endures forever.

Let us pray for a godly vision, which is eternal and infinite, so we can stop seeing from our finite, sinful eyes which are so limited and limiting.

And, let’s pray we learn what it means and how to always give thanks. This is the game changer, after all. This is the answer. This is the healing balm of our lives.

THERE ARE MORE BOOKS PLANNED FROM THIS BOOK AND FOR THIS SERIES

This is the first book in a series of books about always giving place. There will be a devotional, prayer journal, Bible study, and more. Stay tuned.

HOW YOU CAN CONTACT ME AND WHERE TO FIND ME

I would love to hear from you if you read my story and if it speaks to you. What does this story do for you and your faith? What does this story do to change your life? Your perspective?

You can find me and my blog at: http://agodlyvision.blogspot.com/

And my email is: agodlyvision@gmail.com

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.