I blinked and 30 Days of Thankfulness is here again!

Whoa! I blinked and it’s time for our 30 Days of Thankfulness tradition! New to it? Here’s the mini backstory: I introduced this November drive to my readers almost two decades ago. (That timeline feels crazy, but it’s true!) The idea is to spend the days leading up to Thanksgiving demonstrating our gratitude, rather than simply expressing it. Over the years we’ve supported a range of causes, both locally and far beyond our hometowns. And every year we’ve met our predetermined goal, but only AFTER it looks like we won’t! The pattern has taught me that offering this platform to God and being a human sticky note for 30 days, encouraging all of us to look beyond ourselves and live thanksgiving, this is my part. The results are His.   

That said, I’m shaking things up this year. Throughout the month of November, I’m challenging you to join me in three daily gratitude commitments.

1) Speak Gratitude – Give thanks to God. This is your daily prayer of thanksgiving. You know, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one…”

2) Show Gratitude – Express appreciation to someone. This is horizontal gratitude. I’m asking us to verbally thank someone for something every day! (Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves recognizing more and more to be thankful for as our habit of living thanksgiving grows.)

3) Sow Gratitude – This is our opportunity to live our gratitude out in a tangible way by blessing someone in need. I’m pasting three reputable links below to get your wheels turning. Perhaps you’ll choose to give to a different organization. That’s great! But, once you’ve made your contribution, consider this: You can continue sowing gratitude in the remaining days by sharing my daily gratitude posts. By doing so, you can actually contribute to more gratitude, more acts of caring, more blessings all around!

FIRM, Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries https://firmisrael.org/

Samaritans Purse https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital https://stjude.org/

Please don’t let your concern over whether you can keep it up prevent you from joining us. Thankfully, (see what I did there?) our hits and misses don’t disqualify us from participating, and they don’t rob us of the blessings that await all who want to learn this living thanksgiving. God has grace for us. Grace upon grace, and it’s shown to us in the life of His Son. Which reminds me, I have a little something prepared for you for Advent, too. I’ll be sharing that in the days ahead. For now, drop me a heart to let me know you’re with me, and tag a few friends. Remember-  Sharing is sowing, too!

Hugs,
Shellie