Thankful Monday Morning

The sun filters through the fog beckoning me to a new day. I stumble out of bed and head to the coffee pot. Cold coffee sloshes into my mug even though each day is worth a fresh pot of fragrant brew.

My girls are busy playing and my teenager emerges to see what is for breakfast. Stomach grumbling turns verbal.

Why do we have to do school today?

Our weekend was too busy.

I try to ignore the moaning, but it’s in my soul, too.

Where is our joy?

We pray, eat together, and lessons begin.

It’s Monday, so I pull out our Thankful Journals.

The day I decided to make these books was a day like the one I described above. The sun had been missing for days. We all felt grumpy. We needed to go to Good News Club in the afternoon, but no one wanted to go.

The internal battle in my own heart was won by gratitude.

I told my soul Good News Club is a wonderful opportunity. It is work. It can be hard, but it is worth the effort. It is an act of worship, an act of love.

As I considered my own internal raging, I thought of my kids. They have opportunities, too. They are blessed, but have they been counting their blessings?

I asked the kids to wait while I went to rummage in the shed.

When I came back, I carried a stack of composition books. Four were brand-new, but a pile of others where full of handwriting and pictures.

Those full books were the journals I made while they were babies. I read a few bits of the prayers I prayed for each of them. I told them that we were going to make something similar.

Scrapbook paper, magazines, and old calendars soon littered the floor as my children found images they wanted to glue onto their notebooks. I joined them in the cutting and gluing and soon we each had our own special place to record our blessings.

These are our Thankful Journals. We pull them out every Monday morning to chase away the grumbling and complaining.

My children grab their books and scatter.  It only takes a few moments to record their thanksgiving, but those moments change the rest of our day.

Inspired by One Thousand Gifts. {Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you purchase items from Christianbook.com after clicking this link, I receive a few pennies.}