I’m not sure about you, but as I go about my daily life, it’s easy to forget that God is with me. In the ordinary and mundane, the tasks and the challenges of everyday life, it’s easy to forget that God loves me. I can get focused on the task at hand or self-reliant or distracted and forget to look around me for evidence of God’s presence and His love.
This month, our practice is to create a love list to help us look for and notice and receive the gifts from God in our lives. The tangible evidence of His love and presence. And we’ll be using this list later this month with our listening questions to help us dig a bit deeper.
But for now, here’s the practice:
Take some space at the end of each day to reflect on something (or a few somethings) that delighted you. It could be something small or big (crispy, salty, french fries or a dance party with your kids or the way the sunlight filled your living room on a cold morning or a fresh manicure or some good news or an encouraging word from a friend). On some days it might feel hard to find a moment of delight, but if you look hard I bet there’s something.
Write it down. Maybe keep a small notebook or sheet of paper on your bedside table. Or keep a list in your notes app. Just find a way to collect these moments of delight.
As you write them down, imagine that thing, that moment, that bit of delight as a gift from God1 that you are receiving. Bring to mind your image of God, choosing the gift, wrapping it up and handing it to you with a look of love and delight on His face.
Allow yourself to feel loved by God. Remember that He thinks about you. That He knows you and what delights you. That He wants to give good gifts to you. Sit in that love for a moment.
Thank Him for those gifts of delight. And ask Him to help you notice more evidence of His love tomorrow.
Repeat each night.
If you miss a day just begin again. I have a list on my nightstand that I’ve begun again many times. The point isn’t perfection, it’s growing a practice of looking for and noticing God and His love.
We’ll be using the lists we create to answer our listening questions later this month, so keep that list handy!
And may you encounter the God who loves you as you make space in your schedule and your soul.
James 1:17 New International Version
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.