The Blessing Jar

I made mention of our Blessing Jar in my New Year's Eve post and my sweet friend Leslie asked about it in the comments. Since I have been lacking in blog-worthy ideas lately, I appreciate a chance to respond! So Leslie, thanks for asking!

I am sure this idea must have come from the Five in a Row boards because I am a great copycat. Basically, our jar is just a big pitcher. We try to record as many blessings as we can on little pieces of paper (whatever is handy, not pre-cut fancy slips or anything!) throughout the year and drop it in the jar. We read these to each other as a part of our New Year's Eve celebration. It was a joy to remember the free dishwasher and dryer that friends from our homeschool group gave us last January...or the time Jason almost backed over Mary Evelyn in the driveway -but didn't because for some odd reason his trunk was open - and he stopped to get out and close it just as she was running across the driveway...or the time we went rollerskating as a family for Rachel's birthday...or the day Betsie finally reached 20 pounds...etc. You get the idea.

There are little everyday blessings like a child doing school with a sweet attitude that day or another child being very helpful without being asked or hearing from an old friend. Sometimes at family devotion Jason or I will pass out an index card to everyone and we'll all record at least one or two blessings. We do this when we have been a few weeks and kind of forgotten that we have a blessing jar! It's a nice way to keep Thanksgiving going all year long. Afterall, we are told in scripture to give thanks always, not just in November! 2007 was the first year we did this. It was an easy little project that we could all do and we found it to be a blessing in itself.