Stepping Heavenward

"Heart of Gratitude"

Not long ago God challenged me to express more thankfulness in my 

prayers to Him. He (God) wants to hear our expression of gratitude and thankfulness. As I pray at night I Intentionally pray thanksgiving to Him. I do this (prayer) after our family "bible" time. I thank God specifically for events that have taken place that day (good grades in school, warm house, children with good attitudes, food that we ate, good health, daddy's job, Jesus gift of salvation, etc.)

 I will then praise him for the coming day and pray believing for all His blessing he is going to bring into our lives tomorrow (thank you for the blessings we are going to receive tomorrow, we praise you for your goodness and unfailing love, we pray believing that you will bless our day, etc.) this creates in our hearts a thankfulness for His goodness to us now and in the future.

I have been practicing this for close to year now with the children. They hear me THANK God for his goodness, not request from Him only. Last night we finished up our bible reading (the Isrealites cross the red https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+14&version=ESV, Here is the link to the bible story book we are using with our children right now. The devotional book was gifted to me when I was four! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bible-Story-Book-Old-Testament-by-Sarah-Fletcher-Printed-HC-Illustrated-/291354182052) and bowed our heads for prayer time. We allow each child to pray if they have have a prayer

request/praise and then dad or mom will close in prayer. Last night as I listened to my two oldest pray they made request to God BUT then they each finished up their prayer with a praise/thanks!  My hear was just bursting. I am beginning to see my children not only make request, but also express thankfulness!
A prayer of my thanksgiving and request:


Thank you God for the blessings we believe 

that you will bring tomorrow. Thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for 

your gift of salvation, thank you for the goodness you bless our lives with every day.We thank you for the good day of school we are going to have tomorrow. Thank you Jesus that we can trust you to bring blessings into our lives. Help us Lord to recognize those blessings.

We praise you for your faithfulness in our lives. We praise you Lord for this house, daddy's job, our food, we thank You for all that you have brought into our lives. You are faithful and true. We ask for Your peace and acceptance for all that you allow to take place in our lives. We believe that You only bring into our lives that which is good for us. We praise you in the storm, we praise you always. You are good to us all the time. Help us to never forget this. We thank You for your unfailing love and goodness to us. 

WE will praise you in the  storm, we WILL praise you in 

the calm. In Jesus name Amen.

Stepping heavenward a little each day,

Angela