As a child, if I wanted to do something well I made a point of practicing the task.  The more I repeated the action the easier it was to perform and the more it became part of my memory.  

Often tasks become an automatic response to certain situations or environments.  At home when one is finished with the meal the dishes need to be cleared from the table.  Unless one person clears the table each night, the family needs to be trained to take their plates and the serving dishes to the kitchen counter. 

Some families may pray together before the meal.  It takes practice to have prayer become part of the daily meals.  It requires some guidance or role modeling and the desire to make it a priority.  

Just as it takes practice to have an automatic response to daily activities it also applies to things that we would like to change in our behavior or that we want to prioritize in our life.  

There were several things that were important to me but I was not actively participating in throughout the day.  I decided to make them a priority and was intentional about incorporating them into my day.  

The first one was being thankful.  Yes, I was grateful and thankful daily, but not for everything and not specifically to Jesus.  I challenged myself to be thankful to Jesus throughout the entire day for one month. 

It seemed reasonable that if I were able to train myself to be thankful to Jesus, despite the circumstances, that gratitude should fill my day.  The first week I was very purposeful in my mindset.  No matter the action I was thankful to Jesus.  

As time went on, I began to thank Jesus throughout the day without prompting.  Something would happen and my mind would move to being grateful to Jesus for the action.  

Purposeful practice changed my way of thinking and offered me a way to live more peacefully with gratitude.  The next month I worked on love.  I decided to redefine love beyond family and friends to everything.  The same formula was followed, except I exchanged being thankful for approaching all situations and people with love and compassion. 

I was already grateful so I concentrated on attacking all situations with love.  My first thought was love.  The moment I felt angry I changed my perspective to love. 

My goal was to rid myself of the nasty first impressions and only allow the love.  We know and understand our situation, but not that of others.  It makes sense to come from a perspective of love.  

I knew I had successfully redefined love when I was able to handle personal attacks from the perspective of compassion.  Within a month I was able to learn how to live with love.

The same is true regarding being prayerful throughout the day.  I challenged myself to make prayer a priority for one month.  Starting by reminding myself throughout the day to stay focused on prayer.  Everywhere I went and everything I saw received prayer.  Before the month was over I was consistently praying through my day.             

Purposeful practice makes being thankful, loving, and prayerful a natural part of your life.  

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