How different would our lives look if, instead of being defeated, stressed, and worried, we chose to be thankful?  This isn’t something that I casually say; for me, it was very intentional, a decision to give control to Jesus.  

Yes, my life was faith-based, but I needed to activate my faith throughout my day.  It is one thing for me to understand Jesus is my priority; it is another thing to live it.  

An organization called Path to Faith showed me how simple it can be.  I didn’t say it is easy, but quite simple.  There were three things that I concentrated on in order to move me from being a closet believer to living my faith.

First, I needed to be thankful all the time.  Not just for the good things, but thankful even for the tough things.  Thankful that my struggles have made me who I am today.

In order to do that, I trained myself to be thankful for everything.  I committed that for one week, I was going to intentionally thank Jesus for everything I could think of as I went through my day. 

As my eyes opened in the morning, I was thankful to Jesus for life.  I thanked him for my dog greeting me, for the opportunity to brush my teeth, and for the food that I had available to me.  Thanking Jesus for catching me before I tripped to the ground and for stopping me before I said something I would regret.  Getting into my car, I would be thankful for the transportation provided to get me to wherever I needed to go.  As I spilled my water all over me, I was thankful that it was water and not something hot.  If I saw someone with road rage, I was thankful to be able to pray for them.  

For the next seven days, I was thankful every moment for something.  Much to my surprise, after seven days of intentional gratefulness, it becomes part of your thought process.  Instead of being intentional, my thankfulness became a part of who I am.

My next Challenge was to be more prayerful.  I had it in my heart to be prayerful, but for some reason, my mind was not connecting with my heart continually throughout the day.  I needed to be trained. 

The process was set up because my prayers tend to start with gratitude. Thanking Jesus in advance for whatever he plans for me. But in addition to the gratitude, I stayed in prayer and continued to carry Jesus with me.  Allowing myself to be connected to something that I already knew was with me all the time, but I was activating that relationship. 

Each day, it became easier and easier to feel Jesus with me throughout the day.  That feeling of peace that existed on occasion became something that was starting to be a part of me.

Being thankful and prayerful set me up to layer in love.  I had to train myself to put love above everything else.  Jesus is my priority, but I had to learn to carry love with me at all times. When I do that, I am making Jesus my number one priority.  

So for seven days, I set out to train myself to carry love with me in all my thoughts and actions.  Every moment I thought about love, putting compassion and kindness above everything else.  In my mind, I repeated the word love throughout those seven days.  I began to see fewer stressful moments, and inner peace became the norm. 

Instead of cultivating worry, I made a decision to be thankful, prayerful, and to live with love, allowing me to live in peace, worshiping Jesus.

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