Finished reading this book, One Thousand Gifts, just last week. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to do so. If you have, well then, you know. How good it is. It doesn't promise bad things won't happen. It doesn't explain why we all have sorrow. What it does... is remind you to be grateful all the time. Not just when life is good, but in your darkest hours, too.
Those who know me well, they know that 2009 was a really, really hard year for my family. Full of pain & loss. And I wish I had had this book to read then. No, Ms. Voskamp's insight wouldn't have changed the year's sorrows; but, perhaps her words would have made a difference in my journey.
Words like these: How do you count on life when the hopes don't add up? The hopes don't have to add up. The blessings do. Or these: Only self can kill joy. Joy is a flame that glimmers only in the palm of the open and humble hand...The demanding of my own will is the singular force that smothers out joy ~ nothing else. And especially her words here: I can hear Him, what He is telling the whole world and even me here: this is for you. The lover's smile in the morning, the child's laughter down the slide, the elder's eyes at eventide: this is for you. And the earth under your feet, the rain over your upturned face, the stars spinning...these are for you ~ gifts ~ these are for you ~ grace ~ these are for you ~ God, so count the ways He loves...and though you tremble and though you wonder, though the world is ugly, it is beautiful, and you can slow and you can trust and you can receive each moment as grace.
And I'm counting these gifts--
- family ~ always family
- gentle good-morning kisses
- packing lunch for Reilly..the way my mom used to do for me
- April showers providing drink for the flowers
- dark blue Converse walking around on Brynn's feet
- playlist on my new phone
- freckle-speckled lavendar tinted eggs in the bird's nest on my front door (oops...the babies have hatched!)
- earthworms tending to the soil
- an event-free evening...
3 comments:
those are amazing blessings to be thankful for. i have that book. i started it, but then got really busy. i need to make it a priority huh? i think i will take it with me to the cabin next week.
have a great day leah.
I just started reading that book yesterday...so far, so good :)
Hi Leah, I really believe this . . when we start counting our blessings .. life just gets better and better .. more than true. When we thank him, were really praising him. Blessings, Sandy:O)
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