Will You Join the Challenge?

It's Monday. Again.

Today was dark, cloudy, gloomy, full of rain. It reminded me of another wet & wild Monday.

But every cloud has a silver lining, right?

This morning I sent out my typical Manic Monday Challenge tweet encouraging folks to find the good and positive things to focus on throughout the day. As always, I challenged them to tweet, blog, or share their good thing on Facebook. Most of the time this challenge seems to go unread or unanswered, but today was different. Several of my friends joined me in the challenge & tweeted about the good things they focused on today.

Kristyn tweeted that she was being encouraged through the #JustOne2013 online conference and was looking forward to hanging out with the refresHER ladies this evening.

Jes tweeted that she was looking forward to spending time with her parents and husband in Florida this week. (I'm a wee bit jealous she's going to be in sunny FL for a whole week without me!)

Kelly tweeted that her good thing for the day is Hope Clinic, a free medical clinic that meets the medical needs of low-income folks in our community.

Those tweets absolutely made my day!

Another thing that made my day was the anticipation of what's to come this week. In response to another friends tweet this morning, I realized that it's the little things that sometimes really do make my day. This week it's the joy of receiving a second chance, of engaging with my online writing community, and of getting my car back from the shop.

In the midst of the struggles, the hardships, the hopelessness and despair, there are so many good things that can easily be overlooked or missed entirely. But by slowing down and intentionally reflecting on our lives, or even one short 24 hours, the good things become clearer. 

Every single Monday I purposely seek out the good things in life for the sole purpose of reminding myself that life is good. That despite the crap that is happening in my life, God puts little blessings in my life. Blogging about my "manic Monday" is simply a way to log those blesses so that one day I can look back and remind myself of the good. It also helps keep me accountable, and forces me to slow down and reflect.

Will you, like my friends did today, considering joining me in the Manic Monday Challenge? It's simple. If you're a blogger, grab the Manic Monday badge in the side bar on the right and start posting on Mondays about those good things in your life. If you don't blog but are on Facebook or Twitter, update your status or send out a tweet using the hashtag #ManicMondayChallenge.

So tell me, what good thing did you focus on today?