麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Chine McDonald.

Good morning,

This year, something amazing has happened. A New Year鈥檚 Resolution I made on 1 January has not yet been broken. At the start of 2019, keen to adopt a system to make better sense of the chaos and busyness of life, I took up bullet journaling. It鈥檚 a kind of enhanced to-do list slash journal slash life goals vision board. Alongside my daily tasks, I have a little section for prayers for the week. When I hear of a friend who鈥檚 ill, I put their name down as a reminder to pray, when I am feeling overwhelmed by a certain task, I write it down there to remember to ask God for help. But like so many religious believers, I鈥檝e found that my prayers are often requests 鈥� like reading out shopping lists to God.

So I鈥檝e split my prayer section up into 鈥榟elp鈥� prayers, 鈥榯hanks鈥� prayers and 鈥榳ow鈥� prayers. Inspired by Anne Lamott鈥檚 book Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, it鈥檚 a helpful reminder to me to add wonder and gratitude amid the necessary pleas for help. Like many religious believers, I find that I don鈥檛 often stop to take the time to thank God; whether for the big things or the small ones. I feel taking note of the things I鈥檓 thankful to God for 鈥� my son鈥檚 smile, the completed task, the new opportunities, the roof above my head 鈥� is also beneficial to my own well-being.

As G K Chesterton said: 鈥淲hen it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.鈥� I鈥檓 hoping the increased gratitude that I鈥檝e felt through bullet journaling this year will continue long into the coming year and beyond.

Father God, forgive us for our ingratitude and help us to live lives full of thankfulness. Amen.