Three Blessings, Go

Welcome to the first post for Faith-filled Friday!

For today’s little thought, I wanted to just have the idea of Thanksgiving at the forefront. Yesterday was, for most people, filled with food, family, and fun. Houses were decked with all the fall decorations and the tables were spread with as much food as they could possibly hold. For others, it may not have been all that great. And when life doesn’t go exactly the way we expect, it’s easy to become discouraged or ungrateful. For me, both yesterday and today was
and will be spent in the front seat of a Penske truck helping my parents move from Washington to California. (Not exactly a festive location if I’m honest). It’s been a long couple of days and the weekend is only going to get longer.

With that in mind, I have at least two choices. I can be bitter about how it’s not like a
normal thanksgiving and how everyone else is doing something else. Or, I can be grateful for what I do have. (Side note- I am using my own experiences as an example. In absolutely no way have I been upset about how this weekend has gone. 😛 )

Let me share with you a secret that I use to help me stay positive when things get discouraging or are just not normal. It’s not necessarily a secret. However, I’ve turned gratefulness into a game.

When I was in college, I came up with an idea called 3BG. 3BG stands for ‘ Three
Blessings, Go”. Pretty simple ya? Well, the game is just as simple as it sounds. If you feel yourself starting to feel negative or sad, or if you catch yourself complaining, you say “three blessings go ” whether to yourself or your friends (if you have people nearby). And then you see how fast you can find three things to be grateful for. (You can even make it a competition for your friends as to who can say their three blessings the fastest) The first couple times could be pretty easy as you list the obvious things like good health, food to eat, or even the friends standing next to you. But the trick with this game is that you can’t repeat a blessing (unless it’s
been a renewed blessing). Each time you do, 3BG should be a new experience and a new time to be grateful and give honor to God for the good he has done.

Now, you can play this game at any time. Even if you’re feeling totally fine! In fact, that is very much encouraged! This game is a great way to focus on the good things in life and help redirect your focus to the blessings.

So in light of this, my three blessings for this week are

1. I had safe travels both in the air and on the road as we are traveling through multiple
   states.
2. I am able to spend several hours of uninterrupted time with my parents, talking and
   singing and just having fun.
3. We were able to find a restaurant open on thanksgiving that delivers to a hotel!
   So there’s my three. Where are you?

Three blessings…Go! (List them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!)