Were we've been and a great read!

Since my last post over a month ago, I have been enjoying time with FAMILY…my family of 4, and my side of our extended family. We had a very busy, but great month of December! Cookie swap with MOPS friends (Moms Of PreSchoolers), Christmas banquet at church, lots of Christmas crafts with the kids at home, and one Christmas-like activity (a.k.a. Advent Calendar Paper Chain as a count-down to Christmas…VERY fun and HIGHLY recommended!)everyday leading up to Jesus’ Birthday Then my parents drove down from PA and stayed with us for 5 nights, and my sister’s family came from SC to stay 2 nights with us while my parents were here! We had a full-house…mainly full of male guests, and four of them being under the age of 5! I posted all of our pictures from Christmas on either Facebook or Snapfish, so I will only share a few photos here:

Before the Christmas Day church service

Christmas Dinner

My parents and their 4 grandchildren

Enjoying the mild NC weather the day after Christmas


But so much to be thankful for, which leads me into the book I wanted to share with you…
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp


I actually read this book last Spring, but then had lent the book out to a few people. I had wanted to share some direct quotes from the book when I blogged my review. It was such a popular book, that it was just now returned to me after being read by many!
The author invites us to slow down, to learn how to live the full life of thanksgiving and joy and to embrace everyday blessings and chronicle God's gifts.
The book starts out with pointing out how we often doubt God's goodness and are discontent with what we have...what He has given us.

From all of our beginnings, we keep reliving the Garden story. Satan, he wanted more. More power, more glory. Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve are, simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave. Isn't that the catalyst of all my sins? Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other

Then through personal examples in her own life, the author points out how much we have to be thankful for, and that instead of being resentful, we should be grateful, instead of anger, we should have joy. She uses a great example from the Bible...
Less than 12 hours before Jesus is to be cruicified, what is He doing? Luke 22:19, "And He took bread, GAVE THANKS, and broke it, and give it to them. When His Father was about to turn His back on Him, He was thankful. THANKFUL.

Jesus offers thanksgiving for even that which will break Him and crush Him...

Then she ties in the relationship of "joy" to "thankfulness, and a thankful heart produces a joyful spirit. Is the height of my joy dependent on the depths of my thanks? As long as thank is posible, then joy is always possible.

The "One Thousand Gifts" is a list. A Gift List. Not of gifts I want, but of gifts I already have...just the common things and maybe i don't even know they are gifts really until I write them down...Gifts He bestows. Learn how to be thankful - whether empty or full.

This way of thinking...of always being thankful, really does produce joy in your life. This book has changed my way of viewing alot of things in the past year. Even the well known verse, "Rejoice in the Lord always..." (Philippians 4:4). I just thought that verse meant be thankful, be happy because of what God has GIVEN me. But that's not all...Maybe you can't "rejoice" in the plans that are made for today, but you can always be thankful for LORD!

I saw a quote somewhere online, "What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things that you thanked the Lord for today?". I've found that I am thanking the Lord more often for the little things like my dishwasher, and hot water from indoor plumbing, etc, etc. This book has really opened my eyes to how much being thankful really will change your attitude towards things.

At different seasons of your life, it's hard to be thankful. And very hard if discontentment has become a habit. Because that habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pin of gratitude.
Paul says we have to "learn" to be content (Philippians 4:11), and learning requires practice. Taking Ann Voskamp's challenge of writing down 1000 gifts that we have to be thankful for is a great practice to learn to become more thankful.

In Daniel 6:10, Daniel knew that the law to pray to only the King had been signed, but he still prayed to the Lord in sight for all to see. And what did he pray? Deliverance? Protection? No, he GAVE THANKS. THREE TIMES A DAY!! What a great example! In the words of my kids' Patch the Pirate CDs..."I will be like Daniel, and follow God's commands".

Then the real kicker...for me...My TIME...
...more time to manage just the life I already have. The work, the kids, the meals, the laundry, the ministry, a life so full it can seem empty. And then, on top of all that, who has time to take on yet one more thing and keep a gratitude journal, count gifts?
All throughout this book, Ann Voskamp is very real, very much a mom with normal struggles like me. I love that about this book and her writing.
Then she really hits home...Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time...the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life. God gives us time. And who has time for God?...Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slo time down with weight of full attention...I can always give thanks because an all-powerful God always has all these things under control

Add this book to your "list"! It's a thought changing book!!
And one last picture...the boys were told that this present was for both of them and they could open it together...notice their different personalities/temperments!