" Preserve" Your Blessings & Memories for 2015

Do you preserves fruits and vegetables, jams and jellies? We can preserve all sorts of foods, but why not preserve the blessings too? Use this “Blessing Jar” to count your blessings in the new year. It’s so easy. Starting January 1st, write down any good thing that happens to you or your family on small Post-its or scraps of paper. Write whenever they happen, it doesn’t have to be every day, or sometimes it might be several times a day! Write just enough to jog your memory: you only need a few words and a few seconds of time. Fold them up and “preserve” them in your Blessing Jar.

* surprise gifts
* accomplished goals
* the beauty of nature
* "LOL" moments
* memories to save
* daily blessings!

Then choose a holiday at the end of 2015 —like Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Open your jar and see what the Lord did for you throughout the year! Continue this habit and soon you’ll have a jar for each year. 

This is my 2014 Blessing Jar. All I used was an old jelly jar
and a few sheets of paper cut into small squares about 1.5 x
1.5 inches. I kept mine on the windowsill by my kitchen sink
so it was easy to remember to jot stuff down.

I fixed up some Blessing Jars for my Sunday School class last
week. Here are the "ingredients:"
* mason jar and lid
* a small 4-pack of Post-Its from Walmart for about $1.00
* a pen
* a "recipe card" on which I copied and pasted
 the text in blue ink above
 

Put the Post-It's, pen and card into the jar, add the lid
and a bow, and a label.

I made the labels on my printerwith Avery 22804 labels. There's a template at their
website, and if I can do it, anyone can. :)

It was so easy to make a dozen of these to take to my class.
I hope they enjoy them this year, and I hope you will like
making your own and maybe sharing them with your widow
group or Sunday School class or Bible study group too.

What Sort of Blessings Will We See In Autumn?

At the beginning of this year some of you joined me in filling a "Blessing Bottle." Simply write down any daily good stuff on a scrap of paper and "preserve" it in an old canning jar. At the end of the year you can open the jar and recall the good things the Lord has accomplished in your life in spite of the days of grief.

Today marks the first day of Autumn, and it's not too late to start counting your blessings. I'm already looking forward to the end of the year when I'll get to read all my notes and see the many things the Lord has done, things that I'm grateful for! One example might will be today---on Saturday morning my dad was surprised to feel his chest begin to tighten. When it didn't pass he took an aspirin, woke up my mom and said he wanted to go to the ER where a mild heart attack was confirmed. Today he's getting those blockages cleared, and I'll add some more notes to my blessing jar.

My parents live in Wisconsin, and with me way down in South Carolina, I'm not able to be there for them. So I'll continue with my plans for lunch with the neighbor ladies today. There will be about 8 of us around my dining roon table and I'm grateful for the growing friendships and good neighbors I have. Another note in my blessing jar.

I'm also grateful the weather has finally cooled off! Instead of the upper 90's, we're now in the 70's this week. So whether my blessings are big, like a heart attack recovery, or more routine like a change in the weather, I make a note of it, and I hope you do too. Gratitude is a choice that helps our attitude and helps heal the broken heart.

What are you thankful for today? ♥ ferree

31 Days of Praise

I've mentioned this book a couple times already since this blog started because 31 Days of Praise by Ruth Myers with Warren Myers will harness the spiritual and physical benefits of gratitude! And when we're grieving we need all the help and benefits we can get!

This collection carries the reader through a full month of daily praise prayers. After Ruth wrote these in the 1960's and shared them with women on mimeographed pages, they floated around for 20 years until God put them into the hands of a godly businessman in Oklahoma City. He helped Ruth and her husband to publish the praises in book form, reserving the first 700 copies for himself to send as Christmas gifts. Within three years 20,000 copies had been distributed! Then, in 1994 Ruth and Warren edited and polished it for Multonmah Publishers. It's still being printed today and you can find it at your Christian bookstore or on the web with Christian Book Distributors .

I know, "Praise?" Why would we praise God while mourning? Let me assure you Ruth Myers knows what she's praising about: she was widowed, too. These praise prayers are gentle, sacrificial expressions of worship for times when we have no words. 

Her first husband suffered intensely from cancer and died at age 32, leaving her with two young children to raise. It wasn't until eight years later she married Warren. They've been missionaries and in ministry with Navigators ever since. I think you'll love the honesty and freshness of their praise!

31 Days . . . helps cultivate grateful hearts and a lifestyle of praise. Divided into a couple sections, the book instructs in how to praise God, plus why to, and provides foundational truth about a person's relationship with God.

But the best part is the section marked Day1 - Day 31. Each day provides 2 - 3 paragraphs of praise that you can read aloud or silently as your own prayer to God--good stuff when grief clouds your mind and it's too hard to pray. 31 Days . . . gives you the words to pray when the pain is so deep you have no words.

God understands, He feels our pain, yet He is good; His loving kindness covers us everyday and He is worthy of our praise even from the depths of dark pain.
♥ ferree

Hope for Widows

I'm joining Joannah in this!
What are you thankful for today?
I'm thankful for the Hope that God has embedded in my heart. The other day a friend said, "When I hear all these widows stories I feel so sad."
Her comment made me realize that although my heart goes out to widows and I cry with compassion over them, I have an unwavering, inner flow of hope!
Where my friend sees sadness, I see ahead to hope! I see transformed women, who have experienced the sustaining grace of God in profound ways. Women who really live with intention and purpose!
They rejoice in God's hand on them, and they overflow with a deep yearning for heaven that ignites courageous and outrageous acts of love. (Just visit the blogs on the blogroll here and see!)
Of such is the kingdom of God!
If you'd like to join this thanksgiving project, feel free to add what you're thankful for in the comment line today or anytime during the rest of the month. God will bless--gratitude is good for everyone.

♥ ferree