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Grateful In Any Circumstance

Hey there Friend,

I love being able to share with you each week something I feel could bless your life. It helps me feel like the challenges I've gone through in my life in some way are helping others. This brings me great joy. Not because of me, but because through something hard I can help someone else who may be struggling, find solace that they aren't alone.

Over the last few months we have been creating new Christ-Centered gratitude journals every month. Each one has a different topic and each one is unique in its meaning and purpose. If you read our email yesterday you know that we are super excited to be able to put a picture of Christ on the front of our journals! There will be 12 new pictures one every month for the next 12 months!

Today I want to tell you more about what we put on the inside of this journal for the month of November! We have decided to talk about circumstances. If you've been listening to Brooke Castillo, Jody Moore, or anyone who's been to "The Life Coach School" you know that they talk about how circumstances are neutral. This means that without a thought or feeling circumstances by themselves don't specifically mean anything. Two people can have the same circumstance and both people could have a completely different thought process behind it all. Take a Husband and wife for example. The Husband could make money for his family and the wife could think it isn't enough while the husband could think it's enough. While neither of them may be "wrong" the thoughts they are having about that circumstance is what creates their experience, not the circumstance itself. Another example is going camping. Some hate camping while others love it. Why? Because of the thoughts they have about camping.

In the November journal, we give you some more examples and as well as 31 days of different kinds of circumstances to evaluate in your own life. We separated the circumstance from the thoughts you have about each circumstance. That way you can recognize a circumstance and then think about what it is you are grateful for as a result of how you think about that circumstance.

November means pumpkins and giving thanks. Because it's a time to think about our blessings, we hope that you will be able to recognize we are blessed when we choose to find the things in our lives to be grateful for, to find the small things to be grateful for within those circumstances instead of always wishing life was different. No, that doesn't mean we don't try to improve and set goals for the future. It means that when thoughts of wishing life were different, that what we have isn't good enough, or wanting life to be different come into our brains we can choose to see the good that is there and not focus on what is not there.

Russell M. Nelson said it perfectly with this quote, "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives."

God Bless,
Christy and the family

P.S. Changing your thoughts on circumstances takes practice. Try it out with our next Christ-centered gratitude journal which focuses on circumstances in your life. Use code CIRCUMSTANCE50 to get 50% off a set of calligraphy pens with a new subscription.