Lately on Facebook, people have faced the Gratitude Challenge (the Huffington Post had a feature article on this). The premise of the challenge is to list 3 items of you’re grateful for over a 10 day period. It’s been shown that having a thankful attitude has positive effects on ourselves (there have been numerous studies looking at the correlation between gratitude and happiness).

This shouldn’t be any surprise for the Christian community (although we don’t always express or live it out well). Paul profoundly expresses:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let’s start/continue here then. Let’s try the gratitude challenge together but with three specific areas of what God has done:

  • in your life personally
  • in your local youth ministry since September 1
  • in the kingdom at large

(Feel free to leave your answers in the comments below.)