Her Faith Thrives

When I penned my first words to quantify how a practice of intentional thankfulness had changed me, I didn’t imagine that they would still ring true over 5 years later.  Over 5 years later, thankfulness is still a life-changing practice. God has taken my mustard seed effort at intentional thankfulness and given me a harvest of joy.  So, will you go down memory lane with me as I reflect on when this practice began? 

Sometime in 2014, my friend Sophie and I started telling each other one thing we were thankful for every day. At the time, we lived together in Oklahoma so it was easy to slide this into our “how-was-your-day” conversations. We started this thankfulness exercise with the intent of being more thankful people. We did not realize it would add so much vibrancy to our days. We continued this exercise for months but stopped when I moved to a different state. 

In 2015, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Oklahoma and spent some time with Sophie. Over that holiday weekend we decided to revive our thankfulness habit despite the long-distance friendship. We committed to intentional thankfulness through the rest of the holiday season only, so that it would not be too burdensome. When the holiday season ended though, we didn’t stop. For us, this exercise evolved from  just a way to be more thankful to a lifeline! At the time I was navigating a difficult work adjustment and a challenging season of singleness. After just 10 months of walking together in thankfulness, my perspective on life began to change:

Intentional Thankfulness Changed How I Experienced Hard Days 

Since I composed my thankfulness text at the end of the day, I had the chance to be still and reflect on my day.  Some days I struggled to come up with something I was thankful for. On those days, I started the text with a description of my day including what I found difficult or frustrating. Almost as soon as I finished articulating this, something to be thankful for came to the surface.  I realized that sometimes we do not let ourselves slow down enough to take in what is happening. In our ever-busy state, we do not often realize what is weighing us down. My daily practice of thankfulness also became a daily practice of stillness. In addition to inviting my friend into my struggles, it gave me the words to invite God into the struggle through prayer.  Instead of thankfulness creating a façade of happiness,  it helped me identify the barriers to joy and work through them in God’s presence.  Additionally, looking for something to be thankful for on hard days gave me a buoyancy that let me acknowledge the hardship, but not drown it.

Intentional Thankfulness Changed How I Experienced God

Choosing to be thankful every day made me more aware of God’s presence through everyday experiences. I discovered I cannot be thankful for something without being thankful to someone. So when I was  thankful for a good day at work,  I knew God gave me the ability to do my job well that day. When I was thankful for a refreshing walk in the middle of the day, I recognized it was His creation that made the walking  trail pretty. When I was thankful for a wonderful time with friends, it was God who placed me in the right place at the right time to meet those people and form those relationships. As this practice continued to permeate my life, thankfulness  became my new lens on life and constantly drew my attention upward to the God who richly blesses us. This inevitably produced joy.  

Over 5 years later, I am humbled by God’s goodness to me through this practice of thankfulness. It only takes mustard seed faith to plant thankfulness and reap joy and yet so often I lack it. Leaning into an intentional practice of thankfulness has given me the opportunity to pray for the faith I lack and marvel when the Lord produces it in me. By His grace, I have since pursued intentional thankfulness through making lists, taking pictures, and exchanging texts with friends (including Sophie). There have been mountaintop experiences and deep valleys but God has continued to sustain me.  
I hope reflecting with me on God’s goodness through practicing thankfulness has encouraged you in your own practice of thankfulness.  However, if cultivating a thankful heart feels impossible, would you still prayerfully take steps to intentionally practice thankfulness? Your thankful heart gives glory to God and is a necessary reminder that He is sovereign over every part of your life. No matter how you choose to walk in intentional thankfulness,  you need the power of the Holy Spirit to have a heart that gives thanks. So as you make plans and even recruit friends to this life-giving practice of thankfulness, remain prayerful and watch how God transforms your heart. 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV

For Further Encouragement

Were you encouraged by this blog post? I would love to connect with you on the Her Faith Thrives Newsletter! This newsletter goes out every other month and contains a short personal update, and varying combinations of encouraging reflections like this one, content sneak peeks, and a handful of links to other encouraging resources!

This blog post was originally published in 2016 on the everydaythankful blog and revised in 2022.