My Grateful Jar: Take 2...er...3

Okay, I'm going to try this again.

You may remember this post from last year.

I was so proud of my sweet little Grateful Jar sitting on my kitchen counter.
After I hit that little rough patch in the beginning (you'll need to read the first post to get it)
I was doing better for a little while.....again.

Then I got really behind.

So I took about a week's worth of papers at a time and retraced my steps of the previous week.

I did that a couple of times, actually.
Okay, more than a couple.

Then those moments became fewer and farther between.

I even went so far as to just write something like "I'm grateful for Your love"

on a whole bunch of them at once to get caught up since the days had run all together.

The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months and before I knew it,

I was just too far behind to try to catch up, although I thought about it a lot.

Wow...it hurts to even admit that...let alone blog about it.

The amount of time it would take for me to add a little note to the jar was minuscule.

It was sitting right there on my counter top near the coffee pot.

It's not like it was out of sight, out of mind or anything...

...or like I had to make much of an effort...at all.

******************************** 

ungrateful
[uhn-greyt-fuhl]

adjective

1. unappreciative; not displaying gratitude;

not giving due return or recompense for benefits conferred:

ungrateful heirs.

2. unpleasant; distasteful; repellent:

an ungrateful task.

********************************

Am I a dissatisfied, thankless person that doesn't have anything to be grateful for?

No...not by any means!

Doesn't the Lord always give me something to be grateful for...every single day?

Yes...He absolutely does!

Then why wasn't I able to accomplish this very simple task?

Discipline...or the lack thereof.

Discipline.

The same thing I don't have when I fail to keep up with my healthy eating plan...

...the same thing I don't have at the start of every new year when I vow to start exercising...

...the same thing I don't have when I should be vacuuming but choose to work on a project instead...

...the same thing I don't have when I turn on the TV...or open my laptop...

...instead of opening my Bible.

Just being real here, folks....
...I don't mean to be a Debby Downer (pun intended).

Discipline.

I need it like I need oxygen.

I crave it like I crave chocolate or pizza love...peace...acceptance.
I desire it like nothing else...because I know that as a daughter of the King I should have it.

But I fail at it so much of the time... miserably.

Only Jesus can help me.

So that is my word for 2016...discipline.
I've never done the word-for-the-year thing before...
...and I don't really think that declaring that I have one will necessarily make me do better.
What I do know is that it will take spending more time in God's word...and a lot of prayer.

I'll let you know next year how it's working for me.

So today, I removed all of the little pieces of paper from my jar and started fresh.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, 
but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11

I'm only four days behind :)