Blessing Jar

Posted byFractured Faith BlogPosted inA Fractured FaithTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friends of ours have started up their own ministry.  We meet up every Sunday morning, currently it is at our house as it’s best suited to meet our family’s needs but we believe 2019 is going to bring new and bigger premises in order for it nourish and grow.  Yesterday I shared something at our meeting that Stephen thought would be good to post today so this is Fionnuala signing us off for 2018 – don’t worry normal services will be resumed tomorrow!

January is not a good month for me and at the beginning of this year I was going through a very low period where I had no interest in anything really I just felt useless and worthless. I would wake up in the morning crying and didn’t show any interest in anything other than what I had to do each day for the house and everybody else around me. I needed to find something for me to do to lift me out of the pit I was gradually burying myself in each day. I have always loved making things and last Christmas I blogged about making gifts for the children’s teachers as opposed to buying them and the girls and I enjoyed the experience.   Stephen has been telling me for along time I should start up my own craft business  – but I never listened to him.

In March I woke up one Sunday morning with a thought in my head that I should start to make crafts and sell them online or at craft fairs. I couldn’t believe why I had never thought of this before it was as if a light switch had just been switched on in my head and was flooding me with light. I got up and got on to Pinterest and got lots of ideas of things I could start making. Stephen came downstairs and when I told him about my idea he said I’ve been telling you that for years!!

This was when Rehanna Crafts came to life. I was kept very busy with orders and my mood changed and the darkness that had been descending on me had pretty much disappeared. On the run up to Christmas I felt the craft business was distracting from what I should be doing and that’s spending time before God and doing things that glorify him and low and behold a few weeks after making that decision to scale back I started getting little thoughts about making Blessing Jars for 2019.

The purpose of a Blessing Jar is to record either daily or weekly on a piece of paper something good that has happened to you. It can be an answer to prayer, a thought from God, if someone blessed you or even something that made you smile. Blessing Jars can be started at any time of the year but I thought that it would be good to start on 1st January 2019 and then on New Years Eve you can open your jar and read about how amazing your year has been.

It is important to write down these occasions because it will help us to remember and recall the blessing. We need to be reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness throughout the year because a lot of the time we tend to focus on the negative things in our lives like the things that we don’t have rather than the things that we do have and while we are focusing on that we actually miss our blessing or forget about the good thing that did happen.

I had planned on using a small jar but something just didn’t sit right with me. I thought about recent prophetic words that our friend’s have received lately about going big and other prophetic words I have been reading online from Doug Addison about thinking bigger and changing our mindset of just settling and making do so why should these Blessing Jars be anyway different. I went into my craft boxes in the garage and found the biggest jars I had. I feel we need to be going into 2019 with big expectations because lets face it we serve a huge big God that loves us and only wants the best for us.

 

We need to move into 2019 with the glass is half full rather than half empty attitude and look more to the positive things going on with us every day rather than focusing on the negative.

To make our Blessing Jar I used a large mason jar, 4 brown postage labels, string and post it notes.  On the brown postage labels I printed off some scripture verses about blessings to encourage us throughout the year and glued them onto the labels.  I tied them all together with the string and fastened the string around the top of the jar.  I am using colourful notes to fill our jar up with so it will look lovely and cheerful as we watch it fill up with all the goodness that God sends our way throughout the year. I’ve posted pictures below.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your love and support this year.  This year has been a difficult one for me I lost my father which came with it’s own rollercoaster of emotions but it has also been a very joyous year for us watching Hannah and Rebecca grow up and perform well at school and Adam going from strength to strength in both his academic field and on the rugby field and not to mention Stephen finally finishing writing his book – did you know he wrote a book this year lol.

2018 has been eventful but I feel 2019 is going to be even more eventful. I feel its going to be the year that Stephen is going to overcome all of his insecurities and he is going to see himself for the man that we see him as and not what the doubters and voice in his head tells him he is.

Happy New Year WordPress Family
with lots of love from
The Black Family xxxxx

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca. We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised. But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all. We hope you enjoy the blog.

44 thoughts on “Blessing Jar”

  2. Gosh! The blessing jar idea is something I have in mind to be doing in the new year. Someone on here told me about them sometime ago. Glad you guys have found a place to worship. Happy for you all. For what God is doing in and through you. Blessings!

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  6. Still haven’t decided if I want to do the blessing jar. I journal everyday, so I can reflect on that, plus I’m going to adapt a new journaling process which I will write about on my blog. 🤔 let me pray on it and see if I feel motivated to add this to my daily routine. 😆 I’m already starting New Years with either laziness or less things to do daily.
    2019 I want to learn balance and rest. Happy New Year!

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  7. This sounds like a great idea for you – I hope that as you see your jar filling up with jolly coloured paper, you will feel encouraged and truly blessed. For the first time I did a review of 2018 on my blog: it definitely reminded me that,despite having undergone treatment for breast cancer this year, 2018 was a year full of good things to be thankful for. Thank you & Stephen for your blogging ministry; may God continue to bless us all!

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  14. Love, love, love this Fionnuala!! I am going to make one too! It’s so important to remember our blessings and thank God for them, in the midst of our struggles and trials. And I love that you found a large jar. Praying that your jar is so packed full you’ll have to make another one soon! God bless you and your sweet family!

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  16. Much love and happiness to all of you in this coming year. I pray for showers of blessing on your whole family. Thank you for being an inspiration to me on so many levels. I hope Stephen’s book gets published so I can read it. I have heard of blessing jars before but never thought of doing one. Perhaps I will this year ❤

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  17. Fionualla, it’s so good to hear from you – and what a fantastic idea!
    Hoping (praying) you will not have any more “low periods,” but if you do, may I suggest taking your blessing jar, retrieving some of the papers that have been placed there, and reading them (out loud)? Sometimes just a reminder of what God has done can chase away the down feelings. With that lovely family of yours, I’m sure you will have many blessings, just as you ARE a blessing. Happy 2019!

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  18. I really enjoyed this and think it’s a great idea. I do something similar.. Each day I try to write one good thought or happy moment on my calendar..
    Sometimes I forget.. But really want to put more effort into it this year.
    Thanks for this
    💜Aimee

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  20. This is a great idea! I keep blessings journals and sometimes forget to write things down but I’m reminding myself to write down the good things that happen (sometimes the Lord will bring it back to your mind, too). Happy New Year and peace and blessings to you and your family.

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  26. It is easy for our eyes to be distracted and so important we do what we can to direct our eyes back to Christ. This is a great idea, I’ve seen some variety of this circulate. This year I want to work on a prayer journal. You’re right, we need to give Him our time.

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  27. Pingback: Blessing Jar | MyDaughtersMentor

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