Missed Opportunity

Image credit to textmyjournal.com

Daily Gratitude Year Four-Day 303: Today, I am grateful for a missed opportunity. 

November 2012 was a rough month. I totally missed the "Post one thing you are grateful for every day or November. Jill has just had the news of her cancer recurrence. Uncle Lee was in the final days of Huntington's Disease. Typical holiday chaos. So much was going on. I missed the simple "Grateful November" challenge.

So... I decided mid-November that I would do it in January 2013. One simple thing. Anyone can do that, right?

January came and went. The days of January started with a simple gratitude and my coffee.  I discovered myself focusing on the daily decision of what I would choose to be grateful for on that day. One little thing.  It became my starting point. It felt good. 

I decided to try "one more month". And, February led into March and April.  It was good stuff.  Gratitude was changing me. Then, Dad died suddenly in April. Gratitude became a source of strength. Focusing on the gifts of each day and not the struggle and the loss. Then, there was a tragic death in the family in June - a son/grandson of cousins and aunts and uncles. My brother's best friend and business partner in a harvest accident in October 2013. Mom's loneliness. Jill's cancer struggles growing. 

Still, I continued posting a gratitude each day.  Frankly, I was afraid to stop. 

Gratitude swept me to the throne of His grace. It mattered. It brought strength. I felt His love more deeply as gratitude became a habit. His word began to fill my head as I found little things to be grateful for each day.  

Here we are.  Anyone want to join the challenge, just for November?  Here are 30 ideas to get you started. Keep it online or in a handwritten journal. It can be anything. If you are pondering a 365 journey - you have time to get a journal. 


My rules for 365 Days of Gratitude are that I can repeat something once a year. Some gratitudes should be repeated... like hot water, clean water and coffee.  I can be thankful for the same "thing" in a different way. We can be grateful for anything we experience with our senses. Hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling and what we see. 

You can make your own rules. 

Daily gratitude has changed me...not God as he does not change. It opened up different parts of my heart to God's blessing on the smallest parts of my life.  It has been a source of strength, courage, and vision. The joy is real. 

I love this scripture!  Verses 11 and 12 are what give verse 13 the oomph to give us over the hump of the tough spots. 

 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Phillipians 4:11-13

He is our enough. In Him, peace is found and his strength is sufficient. 

I so glad I missed that 2012 November Gratitude challenge. It planted a seed and my Lord knew I needed in more in 2013. 

Today, I am grateful for a missed opportunity.