Fall is right around the corner, and I can’t help but feel excited.
The decorations. The football games. The family gatherings. The comfort of cooler weather after a long Southern summer.
This time of year always encourages me to slow down and reflect on how far my family and I have come. When I look back, I can’t help but feel grateful for every blessing we’ve received and every challenge we’ve overcome. Even the difficult seasons have somehow shaped us into who we are today.
Joe has always been an old soul with just enough youthful spirit mixed in to keep life interesting. He has a way of reminding me to appreciate the good, learn from the not-so-good, and carry those lessons forward so we don’t find ourselves repeating the same mistakes.
A few weeks ago, during one of his quarterly wisdom sessions (which usually come with a healthy dose of tough love), he shared something that stuck with me.
I’ll be honest: I sometimes struggle with anxiety. I overthink things. Big things, small things, and occasionally things that probably don’t deserve a second thought at all.
As we talked, he mentioned several ideas, but one stood out above the rest: start a gratitude journal.
His reasoning was simple. During difficult moments, it’s easy to focus on what’s going wrong and forget everything that’s going right. A gratitude journal creates a place to record the good days, the answered prayers, the unexpected blessings, and the small joys that often go unnoticed.
That way, when life feels heavy, you have a reminder that good things still exist.
For years, I had a little journal sitting on my Amazon wish list. I’d seen it dozens of times and always thought, “That’s nice, but I don’t really need it.”
Then came that conversation.
The journal is called The Five Minute Journal, and for the first time, it felt less like something I wanted and more like something I needed.
