Hey sweet friend,
It has been a WHILE since I posted last. Between completing the first year of my graduate program, planning for the summer, taking care of normal life stuff, and working through some big personal developments (I’d love to share more later) – life has felt a little, well, crazy. It’s been about a month since I shared Cultivate Joy and How to Cultivate Joy with Scripture Cards. If you haven’t read those yet, I hope you’ll check them out!
In all the crazy, I’ve had days of feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed-out, and kind of just bleh. The tip for cultivating joy that I’m sharing today is something that I’ve been using a lot – especially on the bleh days – to encourage joy and keep moving forward to complete everything I need to do.
I’ll be honest, this advice isn’t really a groundbreaking tip… it’s more of a gentle reminder. Practice gratitude to cultivate joy. Being grateful is like spreading fertilizer on the soil where your joy grows. Practicing gratitude – intentionally feeling and expressing thankfulness – leads your heart to be content. And joy flourishes in contentment.
Practicing gratitude is about purposefully choosing to feel grateful. Intentionally say aloud or write down the things, experiences, and people you are thankful to have in your life. For me, this looks like making a list of things I’m grateful for in my journal or talking to my husband about what we’re grateful for today.
When I do these things, I feel my perspective shift bit by bit. To be honest, when I’m really feeling off and overwhelmed, I focus on the most basic things in my life. I thank God for my breath, for my home, for the groceries in my fridge, for my car. Recognizing that I am being provided for and that I have everything I really need puts whatever it is that I’m stressing out about in perspective.
Gratitude and Anxiety
Gratitude helps us grow in joy because it eases anxiety. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
And this isn’t the only place Paul connects joy and thanksgiving. Philippians 4:6-7 says,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Being grateful and especially expressing that gratitude to God reminds us that we are not in control of everything.
Ugh, giving up control is the hardest thing for me to do. But honestly, so much anxiety and worry comes from trying to take charge of every situation. So much peace comes from knowing that God is ultimately in control, and he provides what we need.
I Don’t Have Enough…
So often I feel like the disciples when Jesus tells them to feed the crowd of more than 5000 people (Matthew 14:13-21). In this passage, the disciples realize it’s getting late, and they tell Jesus he should dismiss the people so they’ll all go home and get some supper. The disciples are pretty reasonable people, right? Planning ahead and considering their resources.
Jesus tells them, “They don’t have to leave. You give them something to eat.” Not what the disciples expected… Right away they respond, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” They know how much they have! They know their limitations. The disciples probably think Jesus is crazy to ask them to do something like that. I mean, there’s no way – 5000 people to 12 disciples? They’re overwhelmed.
When life comes along and gets crazy, I feel that way too. I think, “Jesus, I can’t handle that. That’s too much. I only have this much money, this much time, not enough energy…”
But the thing is, Jesus didn’t really expect the disciples to feed that huge crowd all on their own. The miracle was already planned.
The first thing he did was turn his eyes toward heaven. He says a prayer of thanksgiving for the food and blesses the meager provisions they had. Then he provides enough food for more than 5000 people to eat until they were full. Plus, there were leftovers. When Jesus provides, he provides to the fullest.
Now, I’m not saying that a miracle will occur every time we feel that it needs to. But I do think that we (at least I) forget we have a God who provides. We feel like the disciples. Standing there confused and a little defensive – “but I don’t have enough to do _________________ (fill in the blank).”
But, when we look around to notice what we do have, and we turn our eyes to heaven to thank God – our whole perspective shifts. We can feel anxiety easing and the sense of joy in life returning.
Ideas to Try
Here is a bunch of suggestions for easy ways you can practice gratitude. Choose one or two and see how you feel!
- In a notebook/journal, write five things you are grateful for every morning when you wake up, or every night before you go to sleep
- At dinnertime, share with your spouse three things you are thankful for and ask them about three things they are grateful for.
- Keep a list on your phone for every week and add one thing to it each day so at the end of the week you can look back on your blessings.
- Send a text to a friend or family member you are grateful for just to let them know that they are appreciated.
- While you’re driving, say out loud as many things as you can that feel you grateful for or say a prayer just thanking God for all the things you can think of.
- Write three gratitudes on a post-it note and stick it on your mirror for you to see when you get ready for the day.
- If you have the time and you are feeling just bleh, take out a piece of paper and write down 50 things you are grateful for.
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
One Response
Good morning Abby! What a beautiful way to start my day with a beautiful writing by Abby! Your words, and, of course. the words of Scripture certainly cultivate Joy and Gratitude for beginning a new day! A new day to rejoice and give thanks for the beauty that God sets within usand before us, the rising sun, the blooming flowers of spring and the budding trees unfolding their luscious beauty! The Joy of the Lord is our strength! Have a beautiful day filled with “Son”shine!