2021 Birthday Gratitude List


Here are the 24 things that I am grateful for this year:

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

2021 Birthday Gratitude List

Here are the 24 things that I am grateful for this year:

A practice that I learned from Daniel Pink, it’s become a cornerstone over the past three years for how I spend my birthday.

With many trying to celebrate me and share their excitement with me for having another year of life, I particularly enjoy looking in the mirror. What is it about who I am today that I appreciate and why is my life really worth celebrating?

There are a few ways that I do that every year on my birthday:

  1. I read John 15 and have some very intentional prayer time about my faith walk
  2. I sit down and I read. I press pause and I open a book that is going to push me forward. I really like to read for at least an hour or two on my birthdays now. This year I’m reading Patrick Morley’s book “The Christian Man” and hope to finish it by the end of the night.
  3. I compile a birthday gratitude list of the first things that come to mind that I am grateful for — one item for every year of life thus far.

I started this in 2019 and have made it an annual endeavor. Each year I will create a list of one thing that I am grateful for to go along with each year of life — this year I put together a list of 23 things.

After creating this list I went back and reviewed the 22 things that I wrote the year prior. I also reviewed the 23 things that I wrote last year, in 2020.

Not surprisingly, there were plenty of overlaps and many of the things that I was grateful for in years past I continued to note as things I am incredibly grateful for today.

Here are the 24 things that I am grateful for this year:

  1. Supportive people
  2. Strong health
  3. Continued opportunity
  4. Safety on a day to day basis
  5. A covered and air-conditioned home
  6. Technology to communicate with those far away
  7. Sophisticated/educated communication
  8. Ability to speak multiple languages
  9. The beauty of nature and all God’s creation
  10. An intellect that opens doors
  11. Failure to keep me humble
  12. Creativity that expands the present day
  13. Good food that is nourishing and delicious
  14. Clean water, one of my life’s purest blessings
  15. The ability to have leisure and relax
  16. A Bible that I can read every day
  17. Mentors and people willing to teach me
  18. Businesses that impact the community positively
  19. Exercise and the freedom to make it a choice
  20. Transportation that connects the earth
  21. Learning and the continuation of it through books
  22. Electricity that allows me to sleep and rise whenever I’d like to
  23. Two ears that encourage me to listen twice as much as I speak
  24. The desire to learn and be better for that cannot often be taught
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Life Truly is Amazing

I have no complaints. I have many areas of life that I have tremendous gratitude for and I truly could not be more blessed than I already am.

Yet, with that incomparable level of contentment — compared with any previous point in my life — I am not satisfied and know that each day of life from here until my last day can continue to get better and better.

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” — John 15:4 NIV

With a new chapter in my career responsibilities, my personal goals, and the people in my life, this is to be my war cry for the upcoming year.

“God can do more in a moment than man can do in a lifetime.”


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