“You need to keep writing in your gratitude journal.”

My mentor looked at me in the eyes, knowing my response because she’d just been through the same ordeal herself.

“But my husband just died, how can I possibly keep going?”

We had thirty years between us and different ways that our husbands had passed away, but the truth she told that day, remained.

She and her late husband had taken me and my late husband under their wings. They shared secrets of a great marriage during the times we met together, and one of their biggest secrets to a successful marriage was keeping track of all the ways they loved and respected one another in a daily, written journal.

Two years into my late husband’s terminal cancer journey, I began reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts and took her challenge to find 1,000 mundane things in life and love to journal about and thank God for.

When my mentor made this suggestion, the Christmas after my husband died, I was only at 500 journal entries in three years. I felt pretty good about my progress but had lost my mojo to continue.

“You haven’t steered me wrong yet,” I told her, with tears in my eyes. “It’s so much sweeter in life to thank God for the amazing things my incredible husband once did for me, but I can try to look elsewhere for the good in life.”

“Good girl, that’s the ticket!” Her enthusiasm always bubbled over and spilled into my countenance. “I knew you could do it!”

Always up for a good challenge, I took her encouragement to heart. Six months later, I had completed the other 500 entries without batting an eyelash.

10,000 gratitude entries

“God, I wonder how long it would take me to get to 10,000 gratitude entries,” I prayed one night after completing my 1,000 gifts challenge.

“Why don’t you give it a try?” He asked me in response.

As I turned the corner on my grief at the five year mark, I penned the 10,000^th gratitude journal entry, a milestone in my walk with Christ that has marked a change in how I see every circumstance, every difficulty and every triumph.

The key to staying calm and finding peace

Then, without warning, tragedy struck once more. A series of difficult events that seemed to come out of nowhere and eclipse the excitement I had from leaving the fog of grief in the rearview mirror and seeing life more clearly, once more.

First a medical emergency for my daughter. Then an ongoing chronic illness that cropped up out of nowhere, attacking my colon. These were weeks apart, then followed by a flood in my home from a leaking pipe, punctuated at the end of the chain of events by a flat tire.

One by one, each of these difficult circumstances brought new people into our family’s lives we would never have otherwise crossed paths with. Medical personnel. Home restoration crews. General contractors. And of course my knight in shining armor who rescued me from both my flat tire and my single status.

Over and over, the same question was asked of me by many of the people we met: “Anna, how is it that you are so calm and you seem so at peace?”

One by one, I shared with them, the gratitude I felt about what Jesus was doing in my life, just like James 1:2 says where it tells believers to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, for the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

If gratitude had taught me anything over the years, it was this: perspective. I look to heaven for the place where struggles no longer exist and tears are eradicated. But in the meantime, the trials of this life are temporary, appointed for a season, and made for a purpose.

My pain isn’t pointless! Instead, it points people to His plan!

What is God’s plan in the struggle? It comes directly from Romans 5:3-5 which says:

. . . we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Want a remedy for the sorrow, self-pity or severe hopeless you feel in any situation that is less than ideal? Pull out a journal and begin to count your blessings one-by-one. I’m living proof that gratitude is a game changer.

I dare you to try it today!!!

Meet Anna Waters

Where to find her . . .

• Website
• Instagram
• Facebook

Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.

If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.

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If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.