The Happiness Jar of Blessings

 The arrival of the New Year always brings with it resolutions about how we’ll be more successful, get in shape, start a new lease on life, etc... The standard question of the day is “What’s Your New Year's Resolution?” My question is why is it that we find the need to look at what’s lacking in our lives? Why do we find the necessity to repent in some way, shape, or form?

How can we be so optimistic at the beginning of the year; full of hopes and dreams but come December, find ourselves full of regret over whatever our failed resolutions may have been?

I recently read a human interest story of a New Zealand man, Gordon Pryor, 60, waking just before dawn on December 29th to an alarming discovery, a strange young man asleep on his sofa. However, instead of jumping to the conclusion that the young man meant him harm, he decided to find out his story.

Pryor told the New Zealand Herald:

“I’ve traveled the world a bit and you know a few things, and you know your capabilities if you have to deal with somebody and if you need assistance, I wasn’t unduly concerned.”

Come to find out the stranger was a university student who’d gotten lost after attending a local music festival and boarded the wrong shuttle bus. After trying to walk back to where he was staying he gave up, discovered Pryor’s place, and crashed. What a moment of gratitude for this young man; events could have turned out terribly different.

The saga brought to mind creating a “Happiness Jar of Blessings.”

I love this idea because we get to pause and say thank you, Lord, for this wonderful gift of life. And, at the end of the year, remind ourselves that things aren't really that bad after all.