Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Blessings Abound: Quick Thankful Jar Project

blessing jar pic 3Maybe you can tell by my presence here, or lack thereof, for pretty much the whole summer that our garden production has been…let’s just say not abundant. Ok, in fact it is the worst garden I have ever grown. But rather than get stuck in the rut of grumbling about it, I’d rather think of our non-garden related blessings which have been in great supply!
To help us keep our focus in the right direction my husband suggested we start a “Blessing Box” or “Thankful Jar” type of thing. If you can’t guess what that would be then here is our take on it: Everyday we will take a small strip of paper and write down something we recognize as a blessing, or something we are thankful for, etc. and put it in the receptacle to be accumulated until Thanksgiving at which time they will read and we will start all over again. And they don’t all have to great big items either…IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS!  There are so many little blessings to be noticed each day!
Reasons for writing down your blessings:
  •  It helps keep your “wanter” from being out of wack when you make a conscious effort to notice everything you already have be given, above and beyond your basic needs. (The Bible tells us in 1Timothy 6:8  “Having food and raiment let us therewith be content”
  • It is a reminder that You are blessed so that you may be a blessing to others.
  • You cannot be grumbling or angry and thankful at the same time, and writing down your blessings forces you search harder for more and more things to write…and it just happens to change your outlook and thinking about alot more things as well.
Now for some people it might work just to have an envelop taped to the refrigerator door, or a small box or basket placed on a table near the door of your home, or some other place where you can jot down a few words and drop the paper in  as you begin each day.  However, as you may have guessed, I get a crafty idea once in a while.  I decided I just had to make something special for us to use. And here is what I did:
blessing jar pic 2I took a canning jar out of the cupboard (remember, not many veggies this year so I can count that as a blessing to be able to have an empty jar for the project!) and took the flat lid off the top but put the ring back on for a little decorative touch. Then I printed a little sign the says “Count Your Blessings-Name Them One By One”. I printed it on plain paper and simply glued it onto the front of the jar! Super easy with a glue stick or with kids school glue (I added a few drops of water to school glue to help it spread smoothly on the thinpaper).  Next I dug around in the scraps of supplies in the Craft 
blessing jar pic
Cabinet and found a piece of burlap ribbon, some red berries, and a few strands of raffia which I fashioned around the top ring just to dress it up. I made a small pocket of fabric to hold the blank strips of paper and a pen and attached it with part of the raffia.
The finished product is sitting on a shelf near our kitchen table. I guess all that’s left to do now is to start counting and filling up that jar! 

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