The First of 52 Goals for Living with Intentional Gratitude

I want to invite you to join me each week in 2013 as I share goals for improving and maintaining various parts of our lives by intentionally looking at them through the lens of gratitude.

Each month I will focus on a different theme:

• January – Health
• February – Love
• March – Forgiveness
• April – Attitude
• May – Relationships
• June – Time Management and Rest
• July – Leadership
• August – Education
• September – Home
• October – Growing up – Growing Older
• November – Thanksgiving
• December – Giving

Each week I will break down the theme for that month and share how I believe an attitude of intentional gratitude will improve that part of our lives. By the end of the year, we will have set and hopefully accomplished 52 goals.

My prayer is that we will each be blessed with more joy, peace, and contentment; as well as significant improvement to our health and our relationships.

Week 1 – Intentional Gratitude and Spiritual Health

How would your time spent reading the Bible and in prayer be different if you counted each as a gift to be cherished?

http://geocurrents.info/tag/world-map-of-religious-belief

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prevailing_world_religions_map.png

I found these maps very interesting. My purpose in sharing each is to remind us that faith is a gift and if you live in an area where the Bible is easily accessible and written in a language you understand . . . you enjoy a blessing that many don’t know.

You may see differing opinions on the accuracy and reliability of the Bible, but I would like to challenge you to find out for yourself. Read the Bible. Get to know who God says He is and what He says He can do. Before you begin, spend time in prayer. Ask God to reveal His truth to you through it’s pages.

Get to know how much God loves you. Get to know the sacrifice He made to show you how much He loves you. Learn about people who are like you and me. People who have successes and failures, joys and heartache. People who trusted Him and those who didn’t.

I’m reading the Chronological Bible in the New Living Translation. Bible Gateway and You Version are a couple of tablet apps that offer free reading plans for daily Bible reading.

I promise you will be blessed by time spent everyday in prayer and Bible study. And I promise you will have a different attitude about that time if you approach it with intentional gratitude. If you remind yourself that:

• owning a Bible is a blessing many people don’t enjoy.
• living in a country where you are free to gather together with other Bible believers is true freedom.
• having been been told that God loves you is gift of grace.

God wants a personal relationship with each of us.

C. S. Lewis once said, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”

Spirituality is a vital part of our overall health.

Will you join me in setting a goal this week to spend time each day in Bible study and prayer?

You don’t have to commit to hours. Start with just ten or fifteen minutes . . . use a coffee break at work or listen to an audio version in the car.

Just spend time in Word and prayer intentionally grateful for these blessed gifts.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12