An Attitude of Gratitude Journal
August 2025
I don’t know how many times I have read about doing a gratitude journal. I always had good intentions of doing this and would get a special journal to do so. I would start on day one by saying things I was thankful for and then it would remind me of..”Oh, I need to pray for my marriage, and for my family, and for…”. My gratitude journal would always turn into a “praise and prayer” journal! Nothing wrong with this, but I was getting side tracked from my original plan.
After I went through the heavy emotions that resulted from finding out that my husband was unfaithful and my filing for divorce, I found I needed something different for my healing journey. I was past the intense grief stages of anger and bargaining, and in the depressed and acceptance stages. “Hey, maybe I’ll try using this new journal for a gratitude journal?” I told myself. So, on June 7th, that’s what I did. It is now the end of July, and I have written in it almost every day. The days I don’t do it, I miss it!
I usually write in the evenings, when I am alone and sometimes lonely. It is my special time with my new “single” self and with God to tell Him thank you for His blessings and praise Him for who He is. It also has become an opportunity to challenge myself, to be thankful for things that I have taken for granted.
Recently, I heard Dr. Robert Jeffers share a story about a man who was in Zimbabwe on a mission trip. He was really having a pity party and complaining about his conditions there. He then heard a woman at church go on and on about how good God is because she has been praying for and received a pair of sandals. So, you guessed it, last night in my gratitude journal I thanked God for my sandals, and as I’m writing this, I’m thanking him for my walking sandals! (I am very blessed, I have not only a pair of sandals, but also lots of other sandals and shoes.)
As I am now in the new beginning and purpose phase of grief, I can now testify that doing a gratitude journal for almost 60 days has definitely been transformational in my journey of renewing my mind (Romans 12:2). (According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, it takes 63 days to change the wiring of your brain.) If you aren’t doing this practice, and you are feeling stuck, unmotivated, self pity, or apathetic you now have an answer to your prayer! Get a new journal, or open up a journal that you already have and write as many things as you can be thankful for, and do this tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…