One morning recently I was feeling especially cranky and discontent about a few areas of my life, so I decided to pull out my gratitude journal. I started this journal in 2011 during a particularly hard season of life. I began recording ways that God provided for our family so that I would remember them for the future and be able to share those ways with our children.
Our family has experienced a lot of challenges (financial and otherwise) over the last four years, so I wanted to start recording the ways God showed Himself to be faithful in providing for our needs. I call these journal entries “ebenezers,” or “stones of remembrance.”
I wrote these verses inside the cover of my journal:
“Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever…Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place…and there they are to this day” (Joshua 4:6-7,9).
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us‘” (1 Samuel 7:12).
“We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generations to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done” (Psalm 78:4).
“That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Psalm 78:6-7).
As I read back through my ebenezers from the last two years, I can’t help but cry with joy as I remember God’s faithfulness to us.
Like the time when God paid off our hospital bill balance of $4000.
Or when God provided baby clothes, venison, maternity clothes, baking supplies, gas for our cars, cloth diapers, money for plumbing repairs, vacations, a piano, help with and money for car repairs, family photos, food, attendance at conferences, and a new kitchen floor. I have pages and pages of entries like this!
I also note the times God met emotional and relational needs, by blessing us with fellowship with friends and family, and the ways we were able to extend hospitality to others.
It’s hard to worry about the future when I see all of this in writing!
Recently as I opened my journal to write, I quickly filled three pages. Many ways God has provided for us over the last few months flooded my mind and I couldn’t write fast enough.
I feel so amazed and richly blessed for how God has taken care of us!
I encourage you to start a journal like this too, where you can trace God’s hand of provision in your life and be challenged to trust Him more fully for the future.
Do you have a gratitude journal?
This is such a great idea and I love the passages you have referenced.
I have been meaning to start a gratitude journal for months (years?) and after seeing your post, I sat down this morning and did it. Thank you!
i have been journaling for years, & i have various entries — for gratitude, where i’ve seen God working in my life, goals, etc. and i call each of my journals my ebenezers… it warms my heart to know someone else does this too.