God Gives Good Gifts to His Children
I sit by the window as God infuses the sky with light, and I begin the day in my usual way. I begin naming the gifts. God gives good gifts to his children in plenty; however, I’m often too busy to pause and give thanks.
God Gives Good Gifts to His Children
This morning, I’m using a prayer guide to keep my wandering mind from straying too far. The author suggests asking ourselves what we are most grateful for and relishing the gift that comes to mind. He writes:
“If I am most grateful for my sister, for example, I place her lovely face before my mind’s eye. I see her smile; I watch one of her gestures or facial expressions that always tickles me or warms my heart. And I just sit there, filled with love. All the while, I say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’”
The prompt helps me to remember a recent moment, and the moment fills me with gratitude.
I escaped the house for a couple of hours over the weekend to walk where the lake water laps rhythmically against the stony shoreline.
I walked a few miles while the sun chased the hills, shifting from blinding white into a warm glow of fiery tangerine.
The trail carried me through groves of tall white pines, maples laced with lanky wild grapevines, and a thick understory of wild multiflora rose buses holding out handfuls of blood-red rosehips.
I don’t easily slow my pace to soak in my moments. Ask the people who live with me.
However, in the wild and holy land of the sinking sun, I did the unexpected.
God Gives Good Gifts to His Children: How to Find Them
I stopped walking.
The biting air opened parts of my diaphragm that often feel tight as I breathed deeply.
The glint of flaming sun shined on the water and settled into the mauve hills like an old friend promising a timely return.
Rolling hillsides prepared for sleep in shades of periwinkle and ash. A crescent moon sat back to watch it all from the inky eastern sky like a grandpa happily admiring his family from his well-loved chair in a quiet corner.
I stood until the chill crept through my woolen gloves and nipped at my fingertips, and the mantle of darkness deepened the forest shadows. When I turned to keep walking, I was lighter. My pace was slower. There seemed to be less to prove and more to enjoy.
I need to remind myself to give thanks. God uses wild places to remind me.
How to Relish the Lord’s Goodness
You might be amazing at counting God’s gifts, at looking for what’s right in your life instead of focusing on all that’s going wrong. I hope you are.
But if you’re like most of the world, your mind tends to gravitate toward your biggest problem at any given time. It’s easy to forget that God gives good gifts to his children many times every day.
Your biggest problem might be a leaky faucet, or it might be a lingering health concern that threatens to wreck your life. Regardless of the scale of the problem, your mind will naturally drift to the issue and settle right in its center.
For this reason, we all need to remind ourselves to give thanks.
The minute I stop giving thanks, I simultaneously start fretting and grumbling. I descend to the depths of worry and fear, and this is no place to live.
What about you, friend?
How often do you pause to give thanks for the gifts surrounding you?
Maybe it feels like nothing is going right in your life. Nevertheless, can you think of just one good gift today? Can you sit with it and ponder it in the quiet of the day?
Gratitude naturally lifts our heads above the current of stress in our lives. Every time the current of stress aims to suck you into its insidious undercurrent, pause to give thanks. You will discover a strong arm reaching down to pull you out of the murky water.
Every time the current of stress aims to suck you into its insidious undercurrent, pause to give thanks. #GodsGifts #Gratitude #CountingBlessings Click To TweetGod Gives Good Gifts to His Children: Your Invitation to Embrace Them
I invite you to find a few minutes to slip away to a quiet place and allow your thoughts to settle.
Ask God to help you answer the following question: “What am I most grateful for today?”
Settle on one gift and sit with it for a few minutes. Thank God for this gift. Consider everything you love about this gift. Soak in it. You might even write about it in a journal if this is a life-giving activity for you.
God’s gifts always surround us.
In even the darkest of circumstances, we can find reasons to give thanks.
As you aim to rise above stress throughout the upcoming day, practice naming God’s gifts in stressful moments. Look around you and find a reason to give thanks. The atmosphere around you will shift.
A Free Devotional to Help You Discover How God Gives Good Gifts to His Children:
God gives good gifts to each of us every day. The 7-Day Stress Detox is your one-week guide for overcoming stress. Each morning for the next seven days, I’ll invite you to take a few minutes to read the daily reading. At the end of each reading, you will find a “Stress Detox Activity.” The activity will take less than five minutes, and it will help you exchange stress for peace and start your day. Today’s post is an excerpt from this powerful devotional. Click here to get your free copy using promo code STRESS. 
Attention, all moms and daughters!
Lastly, in addition to writing to adults, I am also passionate about ministering to the next generation.
My 12-year-old daughter Bekah and I wrote a mother-daughter devotional book together. We hope to help moms and daughters connect and grow in faith together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith includes 60 devotions with Scripture, commentaries from both of us, conversation starters, and even a shared journaling section.
Our vision is for girls ages 7-17 to enjoy it with their moms, grandmas, or older women they look up to. However, mothers and daughters of all ages are using this book to grow closer together! This book makes a wonderful gift for a mother or daughter you care about!
You can buy your paperback or eBook on Amazon right here. 
Notes: My prayer guide is Reimagining the Ignatian Examen by Mark E. Thibodeaux. I use this thin booklet every morning, and it has changed the way connect with God in a beautiful way.
