I’ve never been the type to make New Year’s resolutions. Mostly because these resolutions are usually impossible goals that will never be achieved, and then at the end of the year you realize you never went through with that resolution you started on January 1st. However, this year I’ve decided to make a resolution that is so simple and low maintenance, that there is no way I won’t go through with it. It’s a simple resolution, but I think it will have amazing benefits.

I’m sure many of you have heard of a “gratitude jar” and if you haven’t, well, I think it’s self-explanatory. I’m going to keep a jar filled with things I’m grateful for throughout 2017. My goal is at the end of every day, before I go to bed, to write down one good thing that happened that day. Just one thing I’m grateful for. It could be something as simple as, “A good cup of coffee”. Or maybe something as extravagant as, “A family member was healed of their sickness”. Or it could be something in between. Whatever it is, I will write down one thing I’m grateful for at the end of each day.

Why am I doing this? I’m doing this because I think a life of gratitude is a much fuller life. It makes you focus on what you do have instead of what you don’t. If we would just open our eyes more often to the good things in each day, I think we’d find that we live very blessed lives.

Gratitude creating a fuller life will not only benefit me. I think that focusing on all my blessings will make me feel less drained. It will make me feel full, and because of this I will feel like I have more to give to others. I hope it will create a spirit of generosity in me, so that I can be more generous with my time, money, and talents. I hope that the gratitude jar will take my inward focus and shift it more outward.

Psalm 100:4 “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”