A Praise A Day: Looking Back at 2016

   Over the last year so much has happened. I’m sure a lot has happened to you just like a lot has happened to me. This year was a little different for me because I made a choice at the beginning of the year. I made a choice to look for the good in life every day.

   This idea began because of something a friend told me. She would get a sparkling cider bottle, which would be her “giving to God jug.” Any time she had problems that she would constantly worry about she would write it on a piece of paper and put it in the jug. There was no way she could get the paper out. Therefore, there was nothing she needed to worry about. I worry too, but my jug was a little different. Mine was about praises.

   If you do not know me, then you do not know that I am a pessimistic person. At least, I seem like one to a lot of people. In my mind I try to think positive but the negative tends to come out. This last year I decided that every day I would write down at least one praise per day. Some days I had a lot of praises to put in the jug. Other days it was difficult for me to come up with a praise but I still did.

   What I discovered is that I began to have more joy no matter what was happening. I also started to worry less about what would happen to me. I was able to see firsthand all the good things that God put in my life, which made me less worried about all the bad things. It is also fun to look at the jug and see it filled with praises. I also took the papers out of the jug at the end of the year and looked back on all of the praises I had (I chose one that I would be able to get the papers out of). This helped me see how much I have grown and how much I have to be thankful for.

   I’m not saying you need to write down all of the praises you have every day. And, maybe you are an optimistic person and you don’t need to work on finding praises. But, there may be something else you need to work on. I encourage you to choose one character trait you would like to work on this year. Then come up with something you are going to do in order to help you grow in that area of life. I promise you that when you look back at 2017 at the end of next year, if you have kept trying to grow, it will be worth it.

   Colossians 1:9-10, Romans 8:28, Psalm 103:2