It was back in 2015 that Claire and I began to significantly increase our “gratitude attitude” by starting a Thanksgiving Jar project as one of our New Year’s resolutions. It was a simple enough plan — just set a large glass jar on the kitchen counter into which we would drop little notes of things for which we were grateful to God. Those notes quickly began to accumulate: answers to prayer, encouragements, deliverances, tests passed, special moments of beauty and adventure. You get the idea.
Well, this practice turned out to be a remarkably effective way to sharpen our sense of Thanksgiving, to reduce complacency and complaining, and to deepen our appreciation of the constancy of God’s mercies to us. We not only noticed more of God’s activity in our lives; we also began to look for Him to “show up” in every area of our daily routines. And so, with profound appreciation for the effects stimulated by this spiritual discipline, we have continued it ever since.
But here is another nifty element of our Thanksgiving Jar project. When the jar becomes full, we empty it into a large sack or box and start all over again. By the time Christmas season rolls around, we have emptied the jar several times over. We then take the whole year’s worth of notes (we start afresh every December 1st), mix ‘em all up, and pour them into a big wicker basket. Then, as the final stage of our evening prayers together, we each pull out a few of those notes and read them aloud. As you can imagine, it’s fun to look back on the year, but it also gives us a brand new opportunity to thank God for the blessings documented in those notes.
For the first couple of years, this practice added a special spice to our Christmas season. And it still does. However, even as the Thanksgiving Jar helped us to expand our “gratitude attitude,” there was also an expansion in the number of notes we were making. So it is that the pattern now is that we’re opening Thanksgiving Jar notes at the conclusion of our nightly prayers deep into spring! Thank you, heavenly Father, for inspiring and directing us in this very joyful, very practical spiritual discipline.
And what about you? Perhaps you might consider starting a Thanksgiving Jar project for you and your family. It will certainly help make Thanksgiving a whole-year practice and, in so doing, you’ll find a wonderful bunch of associated blessings as well.