100 Days to Grow a Grateful Heart

We all know there are many benefits of practicing gratitude… and yet, we don’t do it. A gratitude journal is one proven way you can be more intentional about counting your blessings each day, and grow a more grateful heart.

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At the beginning of this year, I was feeling quite UNgrateful. I found myself complaining and lamenting and just allowing a lot of negativity to take over my thinking… and I knew I had to do something to change that narrative!

Have you been there too?

All the negative thoughts swirling, like you can’t seem to forget about all the things going wrong in your life, while at the same time forgetting to thank God for your blessings?

It’s a sticky trap, for sure. There will always be bad things to complain about, and if we allow that internal bickering to take hold, it will fester and become a bad habit.

The KEY, is to make a habit of choosing GRATITUDE instead!

Which of course, requires an intentional shift—a conscious effort on our part, to learn how to be more grateful. And to do that, I knew I needed a tool… some sort of gratitude journal that would encourage me to focus on God’s grace and blessings in my life, and write them down each day.

But, most of the gratitude journals I looked at were SO BORING… just a few blank lines on which to write the things I was grateful for. No inspiration. No Bible verses to remind me of God’s amazing grace. So, I kept searching…

…until, I found Shanna Noel’s beautiful book 100 Days of Grace & Gratitude! Here was a book that could inspire me, to grow a grateful heart.

But, there was a problem: This book, while it had plenty of Scripture, devotional prompts, and creative space, had no dedicated space to write a list of things I was grateful for.

I had an IDEA though! Let me show you what I did…

100 Days of Grace & Gratitude: Book Review & Tips

So, each two-page spread in this lovely book has a devotional, Bible verses pertaining to it, a prayer, and some blank space in which to journal. Which is a great start!

Being a creative soul, of course I HAD to use some of that space to do hand lettering and drawing. So, every morning I would read the devotional, have a little creative time, and then leave the book open on my desk…

…and every evening, I would draw a box with “What I’m grateful for:” and then write down three things I was grateful for that day.

That way, it could be a creative Scripture journal AND a gratitude journal all rolled into one!

I even created a little template out of an index card, that was just the right size to fit a short three-item list of things to be grateful for each day. That made it easy, to just trace a new box every day wherever it would fit, and write down my blessings in the box.

The paper in this gratitude journal is a nice heavy weight, and very smooth, so it’s excellent for a variety of different pens, colored pencils, and even markers.

I’ve used my Gelly Roll pens, Tombow calligraphy pens, and Karin Brush Markers in it, and the only one that bled through the page was the super juicy Karin markers… but even so, the bleeding wasn’t enough to deter me from continuing to use them.

100 Days of Grace & Gratitude has helped me do exactly what I was hoping to: Learn how to practice gratitude daily! And as such, I highly recommend it!

How to Start a Gratitude Journal

It doesn’t take much effort to start a gratitude journal… the most important thing you need, is simply a desire to grow a more grateful heart, and the commitment to see it through each day. If you have those things, you can choose whatever kind of journal you like, and reap the benefits of writing down your blessings every day.

If you’re a creative soul like me, I think you’ll love the ample space and creative freedom 100 Days of Grace & Gratitude offers! You can have the best of both worlds: Space to journal creatively, AND enough space to also make a list of unique things to be thankful for each day.

However, if you’re looking for something less creative and more just writing, you might enjoy a simpler journal such as More Than Gratitude: 100 Days of Cultivating Deep Roots of Gratitude Through Guided Journaling, Prayer, and Scripture.

Also, while it IS nice to have a dedicated gratitude journal, you don’t need one to get started! There are so many ways to cultivate gratitude, that don’t involve a dedicated journal. Just grab a plain notebook, a blank piece of paper, or even a post-it note, and start making a daily list of your blessings.

Either way, I hope you’re able to find many things to be grateful for each day! If you need some inspiration, start with these examples of gratitude in the Bible, and this list of 100 things to thank God for. When you reap the benefits of practicing gratitude, it can change your whole outlook on life for the better.