“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Last time we talked about growing a relationship with God and what that entails: shared experiences, communication and trust. Today I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about the importance of noticing blessings all around us – “collecting happiness” throughout our day.
I was reading the book, My Name is Mahtob, and she described a college course she took where the professor challenged each student to make a daily list of five ways they “collected happiness” each day. Mahtob explained how difficult it was for her to find five things that made her happy every single day. It took quite a bit of effort to start noticing the happiness to collect, but she realized once she started, it became easier and easier.
The same experience happened for me. I had been encouraged for years to start a “blessings journal” to list all the blessings I experienced throughout each day. I resisted for quite a while and then when I did start, it was hard to list many. However, I found that the more I listed blessings (big, small and everything in between), the more I noticed blessings:
- A beautiful sunrise or sunset
- Sharing a cup of coffee with a friend
- “Today is over and I can start fresh tomorrow.”
It’s been over five years now and I have to say, I treasure my blessings journal. It has grown into something more – now it holds special Bible verses God gives me for certain seasons in my life, promises He has spoken over my family, prayer requests or answered prayer as well as the list of blessings I experience throughout the day.
One more “blessing” Mahtob found when she started collecting happiness and sharing within the group setting of her class was this: the more one shares with others the blessings in one’s life, the more contagious it becomes and you find yourself happier than when you started. Happy for one’s own blessings but happy for other’s blessings as well.
When we live life God’s way, sharing His blessings with others, it increases our happiness instead of depleting it. Instead of being jealous, we are filled with His love for life and others even more. That’s definitely a blessing that should be written down.
I’d love to encourage everyone to start looking around and collecting their own happiness on a daily basis.
#collecting happiness #blessingsjournal #SpokenfromtheHeart
© Cheri Swalwell 2018