Giving Thanks Before Things Happen

As my fellow 54 day Rosary novena prayer warriors and I embarked on the second half of the novena yesterday, I had a moment when I realized something that gave me a new appreciate for the novena. No, this is not the first time I've prayed the novena. In fact, this is my third time. However, there is something about this particular time that has made me more aware of what I am praying. Let me explain.

Last night (as I seem to have preferred to do the novena at night when I pray the rest of my nighttime prayers), I started on the first day of the Thanksgiving portion of the novena. If you've never done this particular novena, it's 27 days of Petition and then 27 days of Thanksgiving. While I have already begun to see that a couple of my petitions are slowly being answered, nothing has been concrete. What the second part of the novena does is have you give thanks for the things you have asked for; you're thanking Our Blessed Mother for things which may or may not have been answered yet. This seems like a beautiful thing to do. It is putting trust in Our Blessed Mother (as our intercessor) and God and thanking them for your answered petitions. What you get may not be what you want but you'll get what you need from them.

All of this got me thinking: how many times have I personally given thanks to God for things before they happen? When I ask a friend for a favor, I always thank them ahead of time... so why not do the same thing when I pray about a particular petition? Furthermore, why not give thinks for the things I have been given (whether I deserved them or not) just to show my appreciation. God gives us so much yet we fail to thank Him. Raise your hand if you're guilty of this as well. Go ahead... I can't see through the computer so I won't know if you're admitting it or not. lol. Thankfully, we can change this.

As many of you long time readers may remember, I started a tradition of adding things instead of giving things up for Lent. I don't have any really bad habits to give up other than maybe tweeting way too much when I'm bored. lol. Last year it was doing an act of charity every day (harder than it sounds when you stay at home most days). This year I'm adding to the daily act of charity by giving thanks for one thing I usually take for granted... and I'm going to try to make sure that I don't repeat any of them throughout Lent. I like to challenge myself like this at times. :) Bring on it, bro.

Anyway, just random thoughts I wanted to share before I logged offline for the day. Yes, I have been limiting my time online after the headaches from last week. According to Goodreads widget, I'm a book (soon to be two) behind on my 48 books in a year goal so I'm trying to catch up on that. I've been able to catch up to my Catechism in a Year emails by limited my time online (or at least limiting my time on social networks) which is always a good thing. Productivity FTW! :D

I hope y'all have a great start of week. If you have any prayer requests, don't forget to let me know. :D

As always, thanks for reading and God bless. :D