1,000 Gifts > Chapter 3

This post is part of my Book Club Series

which was started by {this} and {this} lovely lady

To start from the beginning click {here}

SOUND BYTES:

"I may have known that change takes real intentionality, like a woman bent over her garden beds every day with a spade and the determined will to grow up something good to strengthen the heart. (p43)... I would have to DO something (p44)."

The idea first came from Pinterest. All those hours scouring that website for something that caught my eye. Pin after pin, minute by minute - re-pinning with the hope and dream that one day it would become a reality

 (even though 95% of it hasn't).
 But this pin - this pin caught my heart.

A Gratitude Journal

One thing you are thankful fore EVERY day

That is do-able. This was back in the fall of '11 and I hadn't even picked up Ann's book yet. So that following Spring, when I finally read what Ann was saying

the challenge of 1,000 excited me. 

It enticed me to look closer at my days. To carry my journal around with me and leave it open on my desk, pen ready to record the small gifts God was giving me daily.

Real Intentional.

It took me 4 months to complete my list - four hard months in which God ironed out of me not just thinking him for the good and easy,

but also for the good and the hard.

So that when the hardest comes 

I was in the practice of giving thanks.

And it has.

3 weeks ago I was given an early release* from my job. A job that I loved and that I was growing in. A job that God used to show me how present he was on the mission field and in the mundane tasks of office life. A job where I learned not just in my gift counting, in every part of life - what real intentionality looks like.

And I grieve for the reasons it ended.I grieve for opportunities that I feel like I'm missing from the next 5 months until I thought this job was planned to end.

I grieve...

And in my grief, I have learned the language of eucharisteo.
I give thanks

"I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks..." p58
"I name. And I know the face I face. God's! God is in the details; God is in the moment. God is in all that blurs by in a life - [especially] hurts in a life." p54

TRUTH TO WRITE ON YOUR HEART:

 "That is a secret worth spending a life on learning." p47
I have learned.
I am learning.
One moment of thanksgiving at a time.

GRATITUDE EVERYDAY:

Source: iloveitallwithmonikawright.blogspot.com viaHeather on Pinterest

{pinterest inspiration for my first "1-a-day" gratitude journal}

*(my list from the day I got let go)

5AM mornings with God, getting all prepped for summer trip prep, crock pot lunches, doors that slam in your face and shock you, Lou, Grace Bell, physical touch love language, Ben & Jerry's,wine & time to reflect

(my list from the day after)

For Grace, Doug & Angie, Dan Colwin, Robbie & Brandon, Abby & Amanda, big guy hugs that envelop you, puppy cuddling, Jody & Aaron - that life in Chicago is not JUST LeaderTreks

• sending crazy things in the mail with no boxes (like glow sticks, silly string & mini gumball machines)
• lazy movie nights and slightly burnt cookies
• Actually being in church and feeling at Home for a holiday (Palm Sunday!)
• Fruit Pizza!
• New Stories and the excitement that you don't know what's gonna happen on the next page
• reading 1,000 gifts aloud - Ann is just so poetic
• breakfast food anytime other than breakfast
• 7AM La Spiaza mornings and seeing "the guys"
• questions that make me doubt and seek peace
• The widow's reminder (2 Kings 4): start with the little faith you DO have

Words Provide Life

Source: strikingtruths.com viaDanica on Pinterest

1,000 Gifts > Chapter 2

This post is part of my Book Club Series

which was started by {this} and {this} lovely lady

To start from the beginning click {here}

Welcome to another step on the journey of daring to live fully in God's Grace right where He has placed you:

SOUNDBYTES:

"Isn't it here? The wonder? Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it? Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur?" (p 31)

So this is actually my second time through this book and *spoiler alert* what Ann soon divulges that recognizing grandeur in ALL things means starting with the smallest easiest things. I initially challenged myself to counting 1,000 gifts all in the month of May (of 2012). I didn't actually accomplish that - but what I did find was that I went faster when I carried my journal with me and was willing to write things down in the moment. It became a continual LOOKING for grandeur rather than remembering grandeur from the day. We need the "blinding magnificence" when we are not looking.

"Is the height of my chara joy dependent on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks? [...] As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning - now; wherever, meaning - here. [...] The only place we need to see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now." (p 33)

This is the whole basis of her book and the beginning of her practice. I LOVE this moment in her story when she so clearly hears God telling her something and in faith must go out and try it.

"Thanksgiving is the EVIDENCE of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the MANIFESTATION of our Yes! to His grace." (p 39)

Evidence - an outward symbol

Manifestation - Christ's work in our lives

{in reference to the communion table} "And too... it's the most common of foods, bread." (p 34)

If I could eat bread and only bread, I would. And I do "indulge" in it daily - often multiple times of day. Do i indulge in thanking my God is such continual ways?

TRUTH TO WRITE ON YOUR HEART:

GRATITUDE EVERYDAY: 

• list making of all things I want to do with my free time AND getting to cross some off
• Rosemary Bread Pizza Crust! *Brilliant idea Amanda Salsbury*
• REI Garage Sales and God giving me the backpack I'd be praying for!
  
  (I'll show pictures and share the story soon!)
• Witty quotes: "Or we can just get together and eat some caramels... Because if you think about it it's just as arbitrary as drinking coffee" - Good Will Hunting
• Getting opportunities to live as a Living Sacrifice (Rom 12:1)
• Breakfast for lunch and great friends from work!
• Staying out past midnight with friends - which I haven't done in MONTHS!
• snuggling with sleeping babies
• Boy Meets World Episodes (I absolutely LOVE this show and yes I own all 7 seasons on DVD)