Prayer Journal #4

 This prayer I have borrowed from the devotional Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer.  My friend Rhonda and I have been using this book for our 2022 daily devotions.  This prayer is fitting for me for today and I decided to just share it here.

Father, I'm sorry for the day I have wasted being negative and discouraged.  Today is a new day, and I choose, with Your help, to be hopeful, to be positive, and to be a blessing everywhere I go.  In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Trying to be more positive has been a challenge.  For some reason, and I hate to say this, but it could be something I inherited from my mother, I slip into that focus on the negative.  It usually hits me first thing in the morning and seemed to be worse after the COVID shut down and especially when Gary and I were so sick with COVID in November 2020.  Because I had been struggling, one of my 'Words of the Year' for 2022 is POSITIVE.  Focusing on the good things.  Trying to keep my mind up rather than down.  Being encouraging.  Staying out of arguments (hard for me to do) with people I love and care about.  

While on a day-to-day basis I don't think I have made much progress, when I look at where I was a year ago and my way of thinking now, I can see that I have changed my outlook.  

Tonight I pray that I continue to progress and focus more on the positives and less on the negatives.  Instead of bemoaning the fact that we are halfway through June, that after the 4th of July there are all of the county fairs, then school starts again at the beginning of August, I should be thankful that we have so many days with the kids, that we see them nearly every day, that we are creating many memories that will be cherished for many years.