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Welcome to the first day of the Be The Light Challenge – I am so overjoyed you are going to take on this challenge!
What we do, how we think, the way we respond all either spreads God’s light in the world or it dampens the light.
If you haven’t read about how this Challenge works, be sure to check out here.
Day 1’s Challenge: Come Up With 10 Good Things That Have Happened This Year
Please read below for instructions and why I am challenging you to understand what the challenge is about.
Today, before you go out (either in person, through electronic means, or in your own home) and spread light in the world, we are first going to have a purposeful quiet time to prepare for Day 2’s challenge where you will do something externally.
The theme for our first two days of this challenge is: Positivity.
2020 can be viewed in a lot of ways, mostly through negative lenses. But it all hasn’t been terrible. There is always good to be found because God is always present. We, as followers of Christ, need to always be searching for the good, not grumbling about the bad. It is through our hardships that we have an unbelievable opportunity to grow even closer to God.
Suffering and hardships help us realize how desperately we need God, for when life is going easy, we have the tendency to forget how much we need God. And we need to remember that God never causes our pain, but He is always the remedy to anything we face.
With that all being said, your challenge is to come up with 10 good things that have happened this year for you (I have a downloadable for you below).
As you do this, allow God into your reflection as you write down each thing good thing that has happened, and thank God too.
While our lives may have changed this year, and how we interact with others has become distanced for many of us, we should not see what has been taken away, but rather foster a heart to see how much we have. Even in tough circumstances, we can experience good.
I need not go further than my own life to illustrate this point. Every day is difficult as the mom of a 5-year old that has level three autism and a 3-year-old who has Turner Syndrome.
But I always have a choice – I can choose to see all that I can’t do because of circumstances, or I can choose to see all that I have and how God is blessing me with on this unique road I’m on, and how much good there is to be found.
When the quarantine lockdown came this year to where I live, I couldn’t help but notice how little impact it actually made on my life, because I had been living a quarantine-like life for the past 5 years with my special needs children and I didn’t even realize it.
I share that for no other reason than to say that perspective and attitude matter and they matter to God.
While we need to take everything to God, including our feelings as raw as they may be, we also need to hold ourselves accountable and be mature Christians who are able to stifle the spirit of discontentment and grumbling.
So today’s challenge as we get started will help you plant a flag that points to seeing goodness and positivity in your life no matter what circumstances you face and tomorrow we will put it all into action.
Grab your 10 things I am grateful for in 2020 downloadable by clicking the button below. And as you write the good things that happen be in a stance of open gratitude to the Lord using your time as a wonderful thankful reflective time with God.
I’ll see you tomorrow for day 2!