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January 16 2026
12 Plays1 month ago
Welcome to January, 2026! Today I talk about the Gratitude Gardens I have been making and sharing and encourage YOU to be the light in the world by making a difference that YOU want to see in the world around you!
If you want to check out the video head to my YouTube channel where you can see what I am showing about the Gratitude Gardens: https://youtu.be/xHYas7VXF4o
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Transcript
Introduction and New Year Reflections
00:00:02
Speaker
And we're finally back! Welcome to January 17th. Oh, no, today's the 16th. Welcome to January 16th, 2026.
00:00:13
Speaker
My name is Robin. I'm with In The Family Way Coaching. And along with me for a few minutes here, we have Scooby. We wanted to say hello and happy January. Happy New Year. Thank you for following along and starting along at the beginning of my Bible reading podcast. Scooby says thank you too. He hopes that you enjoy seeing him periodically ah as you listen in on the daily Bible reading. If you are starting over. Yeah. Well, today i am going to make a quick video or audio, as you may be listening, to talk about what I have been doing this new year. i know that it is halfway through the month of January and I have been silent online, but I have not been idle but I mentioned at the end of the year that I was going to be starting on a project of gratitude gardens. And if you can see from the picture there for the episode, that is what I will be showing you and talking about today.
00:01:18
Speaker
Well, go Scooby. I hope that you are having a great start to your new year. We tend to think of the new year as a place of starting over, a refreshing start.
00:01:32
Speaker
And the truth is, is we can start doing a new project anytime. It's just that we have that tendency at the start of the new year. And really, as we celebrated last year, we talked about the biblical new year.
00:01:46
Speaker
And that starts at ah Rosh Hashanah. So there's actually multiple New Years. but This is what we would call the Gregorian calendar New Year. We have coming up at some point the Chinese New Year.
00:01:59
Speaker
And so there are a lot of opportunities for people to start anew. I have been encouraging you throughout the year to live out your faith and to be what God has purposed you to be.
00:02:15
Speaker
I really believe and love the fact that everybody has purpose. We all have good work to do It's not just random good work. It's good works that have been designed specifically for you to do.
Realizing Gratitude and Starting Projects
00:02:31
Speaker
So as I struggled last year trying to figure out what it was that God was going to have me do this year, I started to um have on my heart heavily the the lack of gratitude that I was seeing.
00:02:46
Speaker
And this is the way God points things out to me is that I will start to notice things. And then i tend to want to make an impact to change those things that I see that I don't like.
00:03:01
Speaker
We are meant to be the light of the world. So this, I think, is how God speaks to me and directs me to be the light in the world where I am. And I love doing my part to make a difference. i love being the change that I want to see in the world. And since I was seeing a lack of gratitude, I had to first look at myself as well and find that where I was lacking in gratitude, because it can be easy to try to ah pluck pluck the
00:03:37
Speaker
splinter out of somebody else's eye and you can't even see with the plank sticking out of your own eye as Jesus tells us. So I had to start with that change with me.
00:03:49
Speaker
So ah change starts from within. We know that the fruit that you bear is what is going on on the inside. So if I wanted to affect change in the world around me, I had to start with myself.
00:04:03
Speaker
And so God put gratitude on my heart. And I spoke about that ah ah towards the end of the year where i I was trying to come up with a way to sew seeds of gratitude within my own family.
00:04:18
Speaker
And a gratitude journal was too cumbersome. It was a book and nobody was going to write in it. I bought one and my family was like, uh, all right.
00:04:30
Speaker
So i started researching and looking up and I found that there are things that are similar, such as and on Amazon, that you can buy ah that are a jar type of thing, a canister. And then you put a card in. you can It's hard to find, but you may be able to find one for every day. But I was having trouble finding one for every day. They had some where they had 52 cards where you would have ah a once a week. But in order to form good habits, you have to do something every day, regularly. Otherwise, it doesn't become a habit. It just becomes more of a of a routine, which is different, I think, than a habit.
00:05:11
Speaker
A habit is something you do automatically. And so that's what I'm trying to grow. So throughout the weeks, I have been working on these, what I am calling gratitude gardens. And I have some things to show you today as to what I have been working on. So originally i had thought, okay, I will not only just make these around here, I wanted to put them on my website to sell as a product.
00:05:40
Speaker
And ah we learned last year, however, in Revelation, that the world um commerce situation where we we buy and we shop and and we want to sell things and we want to make money, that that's not God's way.
00:05:59
Speaker
He was not happy with Babylon. And so i don't want to be Babylon. One of the things ah after I first got my health and wellness master certification, my husband said to me, are you going to actually charge anybody or are you just going to keep giving away everything?
00:06:19
Speaker
ah Are you ever going to make any money at the things that you do? And that's very worldly, don't you think? It really speaks volumes. We think that we are unsuccessful if we are not making money doing the things that we are doing. But one of the things that's always bothered me is that I don't want what I consider my ministry, my my godly work,
00:06:42
Speaker
to be stressful for me where I have to worry about how it's going to pay the bills. I just want to do what I'm supposed to do. Well, it turns out God has a solution for that. He says to first seek him with all of your heart and the rest of everything that we need that he already knows we need.
00:07:04
Speaker
will come after. He will provide those for us. And I was very encouraged last year to see that that's exactly what occurred. It was my goal when I put that out last year that I was hoping that ah you know so certain some people might be motivated to support the the um
Faith and Provision
00:07:24
Speaker
the podcast. And I had monthly subscriptions up on my website. And i will share with you the fact that ah I did not have anybody signing up on the website to do a monthly subscription.
00:07:37
Speaker
And yet it still sits there. And so that is not the way God wanted to provide for me. However, God provided every time i needed something.
00:07:48
Speaker
And I needed things last year. We had cars that got wrecked through no fault of our own. And we needed vehicles to replace my car. car itself.
00:08:00
Speaker
I put in a catalytic converter twice, actually, yeah, twice last year. And then the transmission went out. So I needed a car. My washing machine died. My refrigerator died. And I tried valiantly to repair each one of these things. And God wanted me to have new ones or a different ones than the ones I presently had. And he is providing for those.
00:08:27
Speaker
So he has been showing himself that he is able to provide for me. And so he has been growing my faith. And we also learned that freely have we been given and freely shall we give.
00:08:43
Speaker
So while it was initially my my goal to find a way to
00:08:50
Speaker
so sow seeds of gratitude, but also to generate some kind of income from it. That was not where I have decided to take this project.
00:09:02
Speaker
Instead, God has challenged me to buck the system, to be different, to not fall into the trap of Babylon and instead to freely give as he has given to me. So I have been purchasing and gifting the supplies, ah of purchasing the supplies and gifting the product that I am producing to people. And i have spoken last year about how my workplace is my ministry field.
00:09:37
Speaker
i was initially very upset at the fact that that was supposed to be my job. I thought after I got my health and wellness certification training that God was going to move me into my purpose, my my my job, that I should have my spiritual work.
00:09:53
Speaker
And he showed me that he was using that to as a stepping stone. And at first I was like, oh, this is my job. But then he showed me my my identity.
00:10:08
Speaker
And my identity became what I am doing rather than my job being my identity. So he brought me identity exchange and I've spoken a little bit about that. And so it's about obtaining your name that God has given you because your name will help you to know your purpose. And so God gave me obedient witness. Now that's two different names and I'm combining them into one. But when when I exchanged failure, because I felt like a failure in dealing with my daughter, with the way that she has turned out, in my opinion, with her difficulties with me and everybody around her, she's reminiscent to me of Abraham's first son, Ishmael.
00:10:55
Speaker
And she I felt like a failure. So I exchanged it and asked God who he said that I am. And he said, obedient. So I became obedient. I was already obedient, but it became my identity.
00:11:10
Speaker
And that means that when he tells me to do something, I do it. And I love it. It brings me so much joy and satisfaction knowing that I am doing what he has created me to do.
00:11:24
Speaker
I asked him for another name and he had already been giving me this name, but I didn't put it together and I didn't understand. He gave me witness and I've explained, but if you are new, you may not have heard that a witness is someone who experiences things with God and then tells other people about it.
00:11:43
Speaker
So I have become as my identity, a witness. So I love doing these podcast recordings because this is me being a witness. I am telling you what I am experiencing with God.
00:12:00
Speaker
So as God has teaching has has been teaching me and we have these conversations together, it has become my goal to give the gratitude gardens to people that God puts into my path.
Gratitude Gardens Concept
00:12:16
Speaker
And so I don't just give them away like you would just hand out candy. I ask people and i so and I tell them about it. And then I say, is does this sound like something you would like to do?
00:12:29
Speaker
And it has been an overwhelming yes. ah So I have been extremely busy working on building and gifting gratitude gardens. And I've actually only been able to give each person what I call a starter kit, aside from one person.
00:12:47
Speaker
because i I can't get out all the cards and make complete projects. They just take too long at one time. Otherwise, everybody would still be waiting. I would have like maybe two done instead of being able to gift and get these things out, get my seeds sown so that I have time to make additional cards to go in them.
00:13:04
Speaker
And so now I'm going to show you what they look like as you saw in the picture. So there are two different sizes of jars. that I am working with. And there are two different materials. For people who want plastic, I have plastic. And for people who have want glass, I have glass.
00:13:23
Speaker
So I have here a glass jar. If you are watching the video, this is a half gallon jar, a 64 ounce jar. And i have made labels that go on the top of the jar lid.
00:13:37
Speaker
And the top of the label says, growing grateful with our gratitude garden. The year we grew grateful together and then a line so that you can write your year that you were growing grateful. Now it says our because the 64 ounce jar is for a couple.
00:13:58
Speaker
This holds 365
00:14:02
Speaker
This has been quite a learning experience trying to figure out what fits and how to do things. So it has been, it takes a lot of my time and it is a joy to do. My husband said, wow, I think you spend more time working on this project than you did last year on your podcasting. ah And I'm not entirely certain that that's true because I did spend a lot of time reading and studying and and in prayer and learning and researching and things like that in order to have, um,
00:14:31
Speaker
you know, ah ah ability to to to speak about what we were talking about and to hear what the Holy Spirit was teaching me. But this does take a great deal of time. And i am grateful for my job where it doesn't take a lot of my mental capacity. It is something that I can do without spending a lot of time focused on the task per se. I have time to think.
00:14:56
Speaker
Versus when I worked in a back office where I was doing liability insurance and workers' compensation insurance and payroll and licenses and letters and billings and paying bills. That took focus and concentration on the task at hand and a great deal of it.
00:15:15
Speaker
Whereas this job allows me time to think about other things. And I love to think. ah So that jar is the...
00:15:28
Speaker
couples jar. This. And I've been making bags for gifting them in too. And let me tell you, this is the hardest part of this whole project is stamping on these bags. I'm going to vent a little bit right here. If you are watching the video, if you are not watching the video, please take the time to watch the video instead of listening. If you are on YouTube or if you are watching if you are listening on an Apple Music or Pandora or Amazon or so However it is that you're accessing on audio, I have been amazed. There's been so many views and listens on audio through the podcasting versus the video lately. And I am just astonished. I just, God is really growing this event even post-script.
00:16:16
Speaker
posts publishing post year. And so if you would like to please take the time to to instead switch to the video on YouTube or on Spotify, i would you will benefit from seeing what I'm referring to rather than just hearing about it.
00:16:33
Speaker
But if you are not, I will give you a verbal description. I am gifting each jar in a bag. And the bag, ah i everything I'm doing is with stamps.
00:16:45
Speaker
So these are flowers that I have stamped around the bag. Now you would think that being that a bag is flat when you start out with it like this, that it should be easy to stamp.
00:17:02
Speaker
It is not. They are not even. they are not flat as you might think. They are They have, they're just not flat because they have the folds of the inside of the bag here.
00:17:15
Speaker
And so it is very difficult to stamp on them. The stamps would not come out even. And I am wanting these bags to look nice. You can see on this one, I am going to share with you my my frustration in difficulty in getting these stamps just right. I even tried to re-stamp that one because it missed the entire portion of the the leaves on the center of that flower. And I tried to stamp it again and all it did was create a double vision and it still didn't stamp the center.
00:17:49
Speaker
And that was because I had kept this jar inside of it for an extended period of time. So it developed a rounded shape, much to my chagrin.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so it would not stand. i I tried very hard and I frustratingly tossed to this bag because I don't like the imperfection of it.
00:18:14
Speaker
ah So sad. But I am getting to the next jar. I digress. So this is the smaller jar, the 32 ounce jar that goes inside. These are glass, so I have wrapped them in the same stuffing that they came in when I ordered them.
00:18:37
Speaker
And this is the 32 ounce jar. Looks just like a regular old jar. Not so easy to find though, because most jars, as you may notice on the 64 ounce jar, has writing on it because they're canning jars.
00:18:56
Speaker
And so it was very difficult to find,
00:19:03
Speaker
non inexpensive jars that did not say mason or ball or anything else on them. And these still have the writing on them. And that's why I was opting for plastic for a while, because I could find plastic ones without a without any writing on them.
00:19:23
Speaker
And then these actually come with canning lids. So I didn't like the two-piece lid, so I actually ended up having to buy additional lids so that people didn't have canning lids, which is involved with a base and then the lid part that spins.
00:19:38
Speaker
Because they're meant to seal in the food that you're putting in there for canning. And these are what are called decorative lids. So there's been a great deal of effort in these. So when you put the stickers on them, we'll get to that part in just a moment.
00:19:52
Speaker
um So this is the 32 ounce jar. This is a single person's jar. And this has no writing. yay
00:20:03
Speaker
And then on the bottom of each jar, I have a label that I have made that says handmade with love, especially for you by Robin.
00:20:13
Speaker
I prayed for you. So each jar, I pray over the person that I am intending to gift it to. and I'm gonna talk about what I pray about in just a moment.
00:20:27
Speaker
There are cards that I have made that go inside the jar. They are double-sided. So I am showing you right now, if you are not watching the video, you are listening to the audio. I have so eight different cards.
00:20:43
Speaker
And on each card, it says, sowing seeds of gratitude. Today I am grateful for. And I actually had to make that that card. So these the thing is, is that this card stock, I'm gonna start at the beginning with the paper. This card stock is 110 pound card stock. If you buy an Avery business card card stock, it's 80 pound.
00:21:11
Speaker
And sometimes people complain about that they're not thick enough. So as a business card, it's even, it's actually still not as thick as what would you would what you would consider a commercial business card. If you purchase it from like a Staples or something like that, they're thicker. Even for being 110 pound, these are still flexible a bit and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.
00:21:35
Speaker
But what that means is that being that they are still very heavy, 110 pound card stock, they are too thick to go through printer. So I cannot print anything on the cards.
00:21:48
Speaker
And i could not simply buy business card cardstock because it was cost prohibitive. I did find one company online and on Amazon. I did all my shopping through Amazon. I looked elsewhere, but Amazon really did have the best prices and the best options for products. Everything is on there. It's great. I love it.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yay, Amazon. ah And I, ah so I, it's cost prohibitive. It would be very convenient for me to buy pre perforated cardstock in business card and then um pop them out, but I cannot print them either way.
00:22:31
Speaker
So in order to get, the information on each card, I have to stamp them. And so each card is stamped one, two, three, four times on each side.
00:22:44
Speaker
And the cards, as I mentioned, are double-sided. Now, that's actually a brilliant epiphany, the double-sided card, because I was going to make every jar, for even a single person, a 64-ounce jar, and then one card per day. And then as I started to make them, I was like, wow, there's two sides to the card. I feel like I should...
00:23:07
Speaker
ah stamp both sides because for a couple, I was going to stamp both sides and then still have, you would need double the cards. So that's a lot of cards. And then I was only going to use 365 cards for a couple and then on each side and then one side for a single person. And I was like, well, I could save money I stamp both sides of the card all the time and then only give out 183 cards for the single person.
00:23:34
Speaker
So I bought a paper cutter. and I cut each of the papers. And because the paper is so thick, I cannot cut more than two pieces at a time.
00:23:46
Speaker
So that works out to be 20 cards at a time that I can cut. And each kit as a single kit has 183 cards. And then for a couple has 365 cards.
00:23:57
Speaker
And then each card is stamped with a different a symbol up here on the side. So in addition to saying sowing seeds of gratitude, that I actually bought a do-it-yourself, like a marquee stamp. You flip it upside down, and then you have to arrange the letters with a little tiny tweezer and mark them and then set them up on there. And then it stamps. It's a self-inking stamp.
00:24:27
Speaker
So everything took a great deal of time. So I've been very busy in these past 16 days. Okay. Not podcasting, but making these gardens and figuring out how to do things better and how I want things to go and talking with God about it and like that.
00:24:41
Speaker
So I also have. Oh, my page fell down here. a key. That goes with. My kit.
00:24:54
Speaker
My garden. And there are. these different symbols that are on each card. There is one that is a praying hands and there are seeds. So you can see that there are seeds because we are sowing seeds of gratitude.
00:25:11
Speaker
And then there are the praying hands. And that is to remind us that No garden. We cannot grow deep roots without spending time talking with God and Jesus.
00:25:25
Speaker
God cares about having a relationship with us. And may your roots grow deeper and your relationship with God and Jesus grow stronger this year so that when difficult time comes, your faith will remain strong, not choked out by weeds of worry.
00:25:45
Speaker
So our garden is growing each day with these different aspects. Each card has a different thing that we need to grow our gratitude garden.
00:25:56
Speaker
Our next one is sun. And the sun, oh, I almost forgot to mention. So the seeds on each card are also representative of God's word. God's word is often represented by seeds. I like visual symbolism. I like i like that very much.
00:26:20
Speaker
I like to associate things. I'm very associative. And that's actually how Jesus taught us is with parables, which is really learning by association, we learned last year. So the seeds are God's word and the word of God.
00:26:38
Speaker
Jesus tells us that the message of the kingdom of God is like seeds being sown. May the message of God's kingdom be sown deep into your heart like good soil.
00:26:52
Speaker
This is representative of the parable of the sower, where Jesus tells us about the seeds that are sown along the path and along the among the, they get choked out by the weeds of anxiety and wealth, temptations. I am praying each time I stamp these over the people that I am gifting these to.
00:27:14
Speaker
And they are, i am praying for them that they would, have the seeds of God's word sown deep within them so that they may be growing a good crop.
00:27:28
Speaker
And the gratitude garden is the crop that they are growing this year. And so this card has the sun on it, which is representative of Jesus's light.
00:27:39
Speaker
Jesus is the light of the world. And he is also called the bright morning star we learned last year. And as the sun gives us its light to help plants grow, may Jesus's light shine through you as you grow in him and are the light of the world.
00:28:02
Speaker
Our next card has a ladybug. You know, I'm going to actually get these in a different order. I'm going to put them in the order I stamped them in. I'm going to skip that yet. The next card has a heart.
00:28:14
Speaker
And that's because no garden can grow without love. God tells us that we are to love him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and to love one another as ourselves. So no garden can grow without love.
00:28:31
Speaker
So may love grow abundantly in you as you sow seeds of gratitude this year.
00:28:40
Speaker
Then we have A bird. Oops, we're going to put that one next, actually. First, we have the watering can. The watering can is water. And this is representative of a couple of things.
00:28:53
Speaker
And I've written on this piece of paper that I include as the key. i have included on there that Jesus is the source of living water. And may you thirst for him and know that because you believe in him, rivers of living water flow from within you And I'm also praying this year that the waters that that the living waters would water the seeds. So I have the little watering can over the seed, watering it, because we need to water our garden.
00:29:29
Speaker
And so we want to water everything with the living water that comes through us, from Jesus, through us. And that means that we're supposed to pour it out into the world as well.
Symbolism and Spiritual Growth
00:29:41
Speaker
And it needs to help our garden grow. It also can stand for the baptismal waters. I've been thinking about that as well. That as we are baptized, we receive the Holy Spirit.
00:29:54
Speaker
which is represented in the bird in our garden. The Holy Spirit is often represented by a bird, a dove. So while that is not a white bird, it is a blue bird.
00:30:06
Speaker
And ah the Holy Spirit, because you believe in Jesus, God has put his Holy Spirit within you. There was so much I could say on that, but i kept the paper short. i had I only had two pages to work with. but I'm trying to include a single piece of paper in each one.
00:30:25
Speaker
And i so I pray for God's Holy Spirit to be strong in the people that I am gifting this to, to be a source of comfort. And I'm grateful for the Holy Spirit as he brings us the fruits of the Spirit, which are peace and patience and joy and kindness and love. And so I pray these things over the people that I am gifting the gardens to.
00:30:49
Speaker
Next we have The bee. We have a bee for our garden. Bees are pollinators.
00:31:00
Speaker
Did you know that flowers cannot grow fruit in your garden if you are, say, growing a zucchini? First, the flower ball blooms, but it cannot turn into fruit unless it is pollinated. So flowers and have to be pollinated.
00:31:18
Speaker
Some plants are self-pollinating, but in God's garden, we are God's garden, and we need to pollinate with other believers, other flowers in God's garden.
00:31:30
Speaker
This is our community. We are meant to strengthen one another. We are meant to bear one another's burdens. We are meant to meet together. So I pray that may you so actively seek other believers to pollinate with this year so you can be fruitful and multiply in your garden this year.
00:31:55
Speaker
Then we have the ladybug. Even the tiniest creatures in our garden have purpose and work to do.
00:32:06
Speaker
And God created you with purpose. God has prepared good works for you to do this year. So may you ask God to show you the work that he has prepared for you to do. And may the work he gives you to do bring you as much joy as the preparation and giving of these gardens brings to me.
00:32:28
Speaker
I want you to find the work that God has given you to do this year. I am just one little person. i am not having a huge world impact. I'm not a focus on the family. am not a huge televangelist. I'm just one little person, one little Robin.
00:32:51
Speaker
but I have an impact in my community. My work is my ministry field. And we never know just how far the the seeds that we sow travel.
00:33:05
Speaker
When you have a dandelion and you pluck it and you blow those seeds, those are seeds. We like to to pretend that they are wishes, make a wish and blow. Each little fluff that you blow on a dandelion is attached to a seed.
00:33:25
Speaker
Did you know that? And as the seeds travel, that's how those weeds grow. ah We like to see dandelions because they're so pretty, but they are technically a weed.
00:33:39
Speaker
We don't want to grow weeds of worry in our garden. We want to grow flowers, but you never know how far the seeds that you have sown will grow and spread and blow in the wind of the Holy Spirit.
00:33:54
Speaker
So I want to encourage to Whatever work God gives you this year to make an impact in your area, we say things like, think globally, act locally, because you will have a ripple effect, like a domino effect.
00:34:15
Speaker
and how you impact the world will multiply. That is the fruit and the harvest that is multiplied. More than that one seed that you plant rose.
00:34:28
Speaker
And it started for me with being grateful. So I am planting seeds of gratitude throughout my workplace. And I want to encourage you in this podcast to today and for your year as you start the year to live purposely, to look for the work that God has made for you to do. And don't be discouraged by the fact that you're just one little person.
00:34:53
Speaker
I'm just one little person. And the things that I do, i know are having an impact in my small little zone. So you too can be an impact. And we are the light of the world.
00:35:07
Speaker
And just little lights, a lamp when you when you light a candle, it doesn't seem to shine very far. But you hold it up high and then it shines further.
00:35:19
Speaker
but it still only gives you so much light, like a lamp unto your feet, a light for your path. It doesn't shine everything in the future for you to see everything. It just gives you enough to know where you are stepping.
00:35:34
Speaker
So be that light in the world and step faithfully with God and do whatever work he has he is going to call you to do this year.
00:35:45
Speaker
My last card is a butterfly. The butterfly can migrate thousands of miles to lay her eggs, pollinating flowers along the way.
00:35:57
Speaker
And they are also very beautiful. I'm going to hold this one very close because she is purple and she is hard to see.
00:36:08
Speaker
This year, may you grow more beautiful with gratefulness, pollinating others to help them grow fruitful and plant seeds of God's word along your way to help grow God's kingdom.
00:36:26
Speaker
And that is our final card. And so those cards repeat all throughout either the 183 or the 365 cards that you are reminded grow your garden different every day.
00:36:37
Speaker
you are reminded to grow your garden indifferent ways every day And that's what I've been doing. So I just really wanted to encourage you this year to be a force of change, to be the change that you want to see in the world, to be that light in the world. And I don't know what your project is that God will give you. I know for me, i don't really fit into a box. I don't fit into a
00:37:09
Speaker
I've done those things. those were there's nothing wrong with people doing that. need people that. But for I'm not going that. the coffee i've done those things and those were good and there's nothing wrong with people doing that we need people to do that but for me We all, I need to do something different.
00:37:29
Speaker
That's what God gave me to do. And I want to encourage you somewhere.
Daily Gratitude Practice
00:37:34
Speaker
God has given you spiritual gifts. He is putting things on your heart. I don't necessarily have a spiritual gift for making gratitude gardens. I just am God's obedient witness.
00:37:46
Speaker
So I am obeying to do what he has given me to do. One more thing I want to talk about with our garden is that each garden that I make comes with flower stickers.
00:38:01
Speaker
And i encourage people, this is my gratitude garden. ah I give for a single person, i give 36 stickers and that is enough for three stickers at the end of each month.
00:38:15
Speaker
And I encourage people to not decorate their garden all the way. This is my example garden. And I used all the tiny little stickers that were left over. It actually came out pretty good. So that at the end of the year, well, I got ahead of myself. At the end of each month, you put on three flowers and on your garden to decorate your garden because your jar is a physical representation of what is going on on the inside.
00:38:42
Speaker
This is something that you can see on the outside. And it takes time for flowers to grow. It takes time for seeds to sprout. And I'm also encouraging people as they go along their day, it can be tough to get started going, well, I don't know what I'm grateful for. That's what I hear most often is I have to think of something. I don't know what I'm grateful for. This is not something that is just for once a day.
00:39:08
Speaker
This is something to cultivate, to grow all throughout your day, all throughout the year. And so it takes time and not to get ahead of yourself, to put three flowers because that's our Trinity. I like to work in symbolism.
00:39:22
Speaker
And then by the end of the year, you will have a beautifully decorated garden. And throughout your day, as I was saying, I am encouraging you to find ways to be grateful within the things that frustrate and irritate you.
00:39:37
Speaker
So once again, I will give you an example. This is the example I have been sharing. ah For instance, my husband will irritate me. yeah Shock and surprise. ah But he does something lovely. He washes the dishes for me.
00:39:53
Speaker
He washes them out of his own choice to do so. And Whenever he washes the dishes, and I don't particularly enjoy washing dishes, so I'm really actually quite happy that he washes the dishes. And I would be sure and tell him, thank you for washing things. so Because nobody wants to continue doing something if they don't feel that the work that they are doing is appreciated.
00:40:15
Speaker
but I was not cultivating gratitude in my own heart for that. I was glad that he was doing them, but I was not cultivating gratitude. I was not grateful for it.
00:40:27
Speaker
I was glad, but I wasn't grateful. There's a difference. There's also a difference between quote, finding the positive in things. I'm not encouraging you to find the positive in things. I'm not encouraging you to look for the silver lining.
00:40:41
Speaker
There is a difference. That is the world's view. God's view is to be grateful in all things. So when he washes the dishes, he leaves the sponge sopping wet with soap.
00:40:55
Speaker
And it drives me crazy. And so rather than being grateful for the fact that he has washed the dishes for me, my heart was gravitating to the fact that he had not squeezed out the sponge. And why couldn't he just squeeze out and wash out the sponge? He's already got it under the water. Just just give it a little squeeze. It's not that hard.
00:41:14
Speaker
He just doesn't do it. And it's been like that for years. He's not going to do it. I don't know if he doesn't do it on purpose. He just doesn't care. i don't know. But he does not squeeze out that sponge. And it was eating away at me.
00:41:27
Speaker
So I decided, God told me, I needed to change my heart. And so I said out loud, i am grateful that Jim is doing the dishes for me.
00:41:41
Speaker
I am grateful that Jim is washing the dishes and that I don't have to do them. And like a switch, that changed. I am no longer irritated by the sponge.
00:41:53
Speaker
Instead, i am grateful for the fact that he is doing dishes for me. One day, i won't have my husband anymore. He is 23 years older than I am.
00:42:04
Speaker
So there's a good likelihood that he will pass before me. And then I will not have him to do the dishes anymore. So while I have him, I am grateful for the fact that he is washing dishes for me.
00:42:20
Speaker
So when we have things that are irritable in our day, like we are late for work or there's somebody slow in front of us while we are driving and we're frustrated because we're hitting lights, all the lights are red.
00:42:31
Speaker
Whatever it is that's going on, we're irritable with our coworker. Within those things, we need to change the channel. to an attitude of gratitude and find something within that thing that is irritating you to be grateful for.
00:42:48
Speaker
i am grateful while I am on my way late to work that I have a job to do, that I have a job that I can apply my paid time off to cover my tardiness.
00:43:00
Speaker
And that even if I don't have enough time that I can accumulate an attendance point that will eventually roll off in 60 days. And as long as I am mindful and don't get too many, ah they will roll off and and I will be fine.
00:43:18
Speaker
And I am grateful that I have a job that gives me that grace and that flexibility. I'm very grateful for that. When I am irritable because the person I am teamed up with, if I am picking, is a slow packer.
00:43:36
Speaker
I don't want to be irritable about that. Instead, I need to be grateful that I am the one picking because I prefer picking over packing most of the time. Most of the time.
00:43:48
Speaker
And i don't need to worry about that. I can tend to find myself comparing and saying that they're not going as fast as they should, or they're not doing as good a job as I am. And that's judging.
00:43:58
Speaker
We are not to judge. So I have to mind my myself and make sure that I am not trying to judge others. And I am grateful for the fact that I have a God who loves me and who is giving me these corrections and is teaching me these lessons.
00:44:17
Speaker
When we are irritable about something, we need to be looking for something within that that we are grateful for. So that is something else I want to leave us with today. That will be part of our goal this year as we grow grateful with our gratitude gardens.
00:44:34
Speaker
ah This is quite a long episode. I was hoping to do it shortly. I'm going to be late today. but but i tried to do this last night and I had difficulty. i had to It was just a whole rigmarole trying to get things set up again before I could get going with recording. I had trouble with my internet again. i had to finally connect the new modem and then it wasn't working properly as well. So I finally gave it up at midnight. So here I am in the morning. I want to give a very special thank you and shout out to Suzanne.
00:45:05
Speaker
And I have a, like I'm drawing a blank. I meant to look whether it's Suzanne or Susanna in Ohio. You have commented on that. You are following along in my January. You are starting at the beginning with me and that you were watching the sun rise as you were listening to me as I was giving the summary and I was emotional about that summary in January. And I, I had trouble responding. I had to restart my phone even because I was at work when I saw it and I wasn't able to get my reply to type my keyboard. Wouldn't work. It was really odd.
00:45:41
Speaker
And i But I was intending to reply and then I didn't get to it at night. But I wanted to tell you a special shout out for you, Susanna, because you actually, because of your comments and ah your interaction with me, you are what encouraged me to get this episode posted.
Listener Interaction and Community Support
00:46:01
Speaker
to get back on the podcasting, to be my, to be God's obedient witness, to get the cards stamped so that I could talk about them, to get this message out today, because I knew that there were people still listening, people who were looking for me a little bit.
00:46:20
Speaker
And I'm so grateful for you that you are here with me. i don't know you personally, But you were sent by God to be a great encouragement to me.
00:46:36
Speaker
So thank you. for helping me get back on the bike and get this posted. Thank you. And i would like to send you a gratitude garden.
00:46:49
Speaker
So if you will head over to my site at in the family way coaching.com, I have a contact me form. And if you send me your physical address, I would like to send you a gratitude garden because I am grateful for you.
00:47:07
Speaker
And I am so grateful Just grateful that you are here and that my seeds and my work is not in vain. I love that.
00:47:19
Speaker
So thank you. Well, I am going to conclude this episode today. It's been a lot longer than I expected. It usually is but if you know me. But there was a lot to talk about and to share with my gratitude gardens. I am going to be wanting to share these gratitude gardens with others. I want to gift other gratitude gardens to those of you out there who are listening.
00:47:42
Speaker
That is where I was going earlier with going against Babylon. I am not going to be selling my gratitude gardens. Instead, I asked God to help me provide, to but to provide for these gardens. And this, I believe, is a project that he has put on my heart. And if he has provided, if he has put it on my heart, then it is something he will provide for. And you know what?
00:48:09
Speaker
he has he has um caused people to want to contribute to the gardens because they like the project they like what it is and they want to see it grow and so they have contributed financially to this the purchasing of supplies uh so that i can gift more gardens but I am so thrilled about that. So um i will be putting these gardens up on my website eventually so that I can gift to those of you who are interested in growing grateful with a gratitude garden of your own. It takes me quite a bit of time. So these are not something I can just ship out ready to go fast. It takes me a little bit of time. That's why I've sent people at work with starter cards with like 35 days or 70 days of cards, which gives me time to continue gifting other people with a starter kit so that I can then go back and make additional cards to give to people as I go along so that I can go back and kind of check on my gardens. I need to tend to my gardens as well.
00:49:18
Speaker
So thank you so much for following along and listening. Thank you for helping me to spread the word about reading God's word. If you are following along from the beginning and listening to the day by day of kids Bible, as we go through that all in one year.
00:49:37
Speaker
If you are unfamiliar with that, you can change how these how these episodes are posted by date. Instead of it being the most recent, you can change the order to ascending instead of ah descending, I think. And then it will pop up with the oldest publication, podcasting.
00:49:58
Speaker
And then ah you will start, you will be able to start from January 1st. And it goes all the way through to December 31st, where we read the entire Bible chronologically from Genesis to Revelation. And it gives us the big story.
00:50:12
Speaker
And i am so grateful to have learned all of those things that we learned. and So that we can apply it going forward. It has definitely made me prepared for this work that God has given me to do this year.
00:50:26
Speaker
And so that is why I don't want to be a part of Babylon by selling these gratitude gardens. Instead, I want to do things God's way to freely give as he has freely given me.
00:50:39
Speaker
I want to encourage you to also freely give as you have been freely given and to once again, to ask God where you could make a difference this year.
00:50:50
Speaker
And instead of being part of Babylon and trying to sell something or to make money or, or to do something with a financial gain to give something, what can you do?
00:51:02
Speaker
What is God putting on your heart? I know there is something or he wouldn't be putting this out there. God is looking to make a difference this year, not just in me, but in you as well.
00:51:13
Speaker
So let's be the light of the world and be the change that we want to see in the world. We are meant to be different. We are meant to be holy and set apart for God. So as my brothers and my sisters, be holy and set apart for God.
00:51:28
Speaker
And I'm curious to know what work God is giving you to do. And since this year we are not set as made for kids, guess what? You can comment away, both on the video and the audio. So I'm encouraged to hear from you. Tell me what you would like to do this year that God is putting on your heart.
00:51:48
Speaker
Where are you going to be making a difference? And let's see how God grows our gardens this year.
00:51:55
Speaker
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever day you get around to listening or watching. And I hope that if you've been listening, that you will head over to YouTube or to Spotify or to my site at inthefamilywaycoaching.com. I do not have a spot ready on my site yet, actually, for me to post this. I will have to make a page for that for daily podcasts. And I will get that done.
00:52:22
Speaker
I just and not right this second. I'm just working on recording this at the moment. And then I will get this uploaded probably tonight. And that way you can check out the video. That is the point to head over to YouTube. And I will try to i will put a link when I get this posted. i will put the link in there for YouTube so that you can follow that along as well.
00:52:44
Speaker
All right, there we go. i hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for joining me. And until we meet again, be the light in the world and the change that you want to see today.
00:52:56
Speaker
See you next time.