A Gratitude Challenge {with free printables for you!}

I’m not being dramatic when I tell you the practice of daily gratitude has changed my life.

I didn’t start a gratitude journal for any lofty purpose or to become some good Bible study girl.

I started it out of desperation. 

Life as I’d known it and as I’d always expected it would be, had collapsed around me. I was staring at the remains of my shattered dreams wondering if my shattered heart could ever be mended.

I was a sudden widow and single mom to seven children who needed me to show up for them, to help shepherd them through their grief and to pick up the shards of life and help put our family back together.

Life felt unbearably bad and I desperately needed to see good.

I knew cerebrally that God was good, but my circumstances sure didn’t make it feel so.

Isn’t God good all the time and all the time God is good?

I needed to see it. I needed to see His hand on me and around me and to know that God’s goodness invades the hardest places life takes us.

And so I began a simple daily practice.

Every day, I’d open a journal, number down the side and record seven things for which I was thankful. When that journal filled, I pulled out a spiral notebook and when that one filled months later, I continued in a new one until today, I just filled the last page on my 10^th journal.

Little did I know that taking 5 minutes to daily thank God would throw the door wide open to so much more. 

I began to see God’s hand all around me and to see how personally and tenderly He loves me.
I found God was bringing good not after, but in the midst of pain.
I realized God had incredibly blessed us despite our wrecked life.
My faith grew by leaps and bounds as I saw all the ways God was faithfully filling his promises.

And in overwhelming circumstances, daily gratitude forced me to lift my eyes off me, myself and I and fix them on God.

He is a good, good Father.

But sometimes we miss it because we’re not looking.

That’s why we’re teeing up for a grace and gratitude challenge. I’d love you to join us!

The Grace and Gratitude Challenge

We’ve created some beautiful, free printables to get us started.

First, I’m super excited to share this gorgeous, free Grace and Gratitude Journal.

This journal has pages for each day of the week to record what you’re thankful for. There’s plenty of room to write down your thanks bullet-journal style or to record all the glorious details of what God has done.

Second, it gets better because along with the Grace and Gratitude Journal, I’ve created a 30-day gratitude Bible reading plan.

During September, I’ll be blogging through the reading plan so we can do this together. We’ll deep dive into what the Bible has to say about gratitude, stories of thankfulness, how gratefulness changes us and how its changed others.

Join us for September’s Grace & Gratitude challenge with free printables. 

Let’s do this. Let’s ask God to open our eyes as wide as He will to see His grace, His hand, His care, even His humor.

As the air turns cooler and fall begins to settle in, let’s spend September cultivating gratitude.

This I know — 30 days from now, we will be different. Our eyes will be different. Our hearts will be changed. The words we use, the responses we make, the faith we have will be forever impacted by 30 days of gratitude.

When we finish this together, I have no doubt you’ll join me in saying gratitude has changed my life!

To get your free Grace & Gratitude Journal along with the 30-day Gratitude Bible reading plan, subscribe here.

Then watch your email as we get started in September.

“Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18