Our Gratitude Challenge continues through November. We are reminded Gratitude helps us turn our hearts towards God’s commandment to love God and one another and to choose to bring more joy into our lives and others.
November is a great time for us to put gratitude habits into practice by focusing on both our gratitude and our generosity. If we spent the month focused on all the ways we’re thankful every day (not just on Thanksgiving), we can develop our gratitude culture as individuals and as a church family to make a difference in our world.
We invite you to take a “30-Day Gratitude Challenge” this month to reflect on your personal gratitude and generosity to ignite change in our church and in our world. Gratitude helps us turn our hearts toward God’s commandment to love God and one another and to choose to bring more joy into our lives and others’. To help support this effort, we are sharing a gratitude calendar with 30 ideas to help develop a heart of thankfulness, a list of gratitude journal prompts for those looking to focus on a daily journal to support a “gratitude attitude”, Bible verses for a Grateful Heart, and several links for both families (with several kids gratitude activities) as well as all ages (from Mayo Clinic with several health benefits and a “Gratitude Plus” app to support electronic tracking of blessings). See links below…
We also invite you to share your gratitude thoughts on our bulletin board “leaves” (see below). Try to be specific and share your unique ideas to inspire others to reflect on their blessings too.
Some ideas found in a recent article on gratitude:
- “Gratitude makes what we have enough.”
- “When we are grateful, we acquire the capacity and strength to fulfill the wishes, wants and needs of others regardless of how hard it might be to serve them.”
- “Ultimately, gratitude is the essential spark that then ignites generosity … and generosity ignites change in the world!”
On Sunday November 23 (the Sunday before Thanksgiving), we invite you to join us for a UMC Monroe worship service where we will focus on how “Generosity Ignites Change.” As part of our worship, we will all have the opportunity to submit what we will individually pledge to the ministries of UMC Monroe out of gratitude for what God has already provided to us. This will come in the form of a prayerfully considered “Pledge Promise” to not only commit to do your best to support that pledge, but also to help us to properly budget and plan for the expenses and ministries for the next year.
As we recall from 2 Corithians 9:6-7, Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
How can we change the world together through our UMC Monroe family generosity?
Click here for a 30 Days of Gratitude Calendar (or a Blank Calendar to fill in your own Gratitude reflections)
Click here for 30 Bible Verses for a Grateful Heart
Click here for Gratitude Links for Families – including Gratitude Scavenger Hunt
Click here for Gratitude Links for Everyone – including Mayo Clinic benefits and downloadable Gratitude Plus app
Questions? Please see Pastor Chuck or Sheryl