Every year at St. Luke’s we celebrate a theme for the year. It gives us something to focus on and something to be intentional about. Last year, our theme was “The Kindness Project”. It’s not that I don’t try to be kind in other years, but having that as our theme just helped me stay accountable to performing acts of kindness every day. This year our theme is “Year of Gratitude”. I’m very excited about this year for a couple reasons.
First, it seems like every time I get on Facebook or any other social media platform, 90% of what I see is negativity. My timeline is often filled with people upset about politics, religion, sports, what their neighbor’s dog did in their front yard this morning… You get the point. However, when we intentionally focus on gratitude it allows us to focus on the many blessings we have instead. It doesn’t mean all those other things no longer upset us or cease to exist. But, we get to choose to place our focus somewhere else. I’ve already seen my timeline filling up this year with my friends from church talking about all they have to be grateful for. It’s refreshing to me to see this and I know it’s refreshing to all your Facebook friends out there! Imagine the ripple effects we could have if we turned social media into a place to express gratitude rather than a place to express our displeasure with anything and everything.
Second, when I was a child I used to love getting mail. Anytime I got a letter or card in the mail I would get so excited. Today, I dread going to the mailbox because it means more junk mail and bills. Nobody likes that! But, with the Year of Gratitude as my focus I’m working to write at least one thank you note every day. My hope is that someone else who is dreading going to the mailbox like me will get a nice surprise when they open it up to find an actual hand written thank you note in there. Will you consider joining me on this Casual Friday in writing a thank you note and putting it in the mail to someone so they can have a nice surprise the next time they make that dreaded trip to the end of their driveway?
