Ann Voskamp

• Watching everyone wait, on Mother’s day, as the mommy duck led her ducklings across the road
• A day of shopping and love from my men
• A pair of pants that fit and I like
• Finding a new place I can eat on my diet
• enjoying the quiet in the house while Granny has the boys
• Being at an amazing Bible Study and enjoying being with other ladies!
• I am a child of God!
• a red throated bird who sat outside my door in the rain long enough for me to catch a picture of him
• Finding something healthy one of my boys will eat.
• Saving the boys from a snail and getting a good laugh.
• Sunshine
• Watching the boys pretending to be fishing in the back yard.
• Little tiny wildflowers in my untamed flower gardens
• Little boys being monkeys
• A clean fridge
• Doctors and Nurses willing to work in such a hard field as a children’s oncology floor
• He is the great physician
• The ability to pour out our hearts to Him and know that we don’t need to know all the answers because He does
• Healing

What are some of the gifts you received this week?

I was reading a dear friends blog. Kari’s blog is in my “must read” folder on my reader, that is overflowing with too much too read, so that I don’t miss a post.

For this I’m so thankful for. For the other day she was writing about a book she was reading, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

For some reason I was thinking it was a devotional. Some reason I felt like I needed a devotional even though bible study was starting in only a week or so. But the way my friend described the book pulled me in and I quickly added it to my kindle wishlist and as soon as TJ came home I asked if I could buy it.

I was surprised to find that it was more of an autobiography, but her prose pulled me in quickly. When I figured out the meaning behind the title I wanted to know more. I wanted to know how she did it. I wanted to count my own gifts. I wanted her experience of seeing the world in a new light.

Then I started to count my gifts and my heart lightened and my world brightened.

Driving home from a job that is hard on my soul my eyes opened up. I looked out beyond the highway and saw the scattering of dark clouds that threatened rain and I thanked God for them. I thanked Him for the beauty of the sun rays that seeped through the cracks between those clouds. I found myself being filled with His love and His beauty and my heart was no longer heavy from the day.

I want to share my list with you, though I’m not sure how I will do this yet. If I will do as Kari is doing and post my list every weekend. I thought this would be a wonderful meme, but meme’s are so hard to build. I have also thought that creating blessings in images would be beautiful and even have started counting some of my blessings on my pinterest.com.

I stopped, I don’t know why, too busy to take a pause that is so important. But I’m starting over, I’ve been slowly adding it in and today I will share with you my gifts.

• Waking in the middle of the night to rock my baby who had a bad dream
• The feeling of his weight draped on me
• Hearing him suck his thumb as he snuggles back into his blankets, he only needed a few minutes of love
• Watching the light start seeping through the blinds as the morning dawned
• A new day
• Listening to the shower as my husband gets ready for his day
• Being awake enough to say good bye to him
• A little more sleep
• Little boys who climb into my bed to snuggle
• Listening to battle hymns being song by my little boy
• Finding forgotten grapes in the bottom of the fridge
• Little toddler “ank ooos”
• Peanut Butter Sandwiches
• Crossing things off my to do list
• Listening to a toddler try singing with no words
• A wonderful husband that lets me sneak out of the house for a little while to go thrift shopping after bedtime

God fills our lives with amazing little gifts that we forget to stop and thank him for, but I am going to take the time to pause and enjoy these moments, to  count each one.

This summer we may be doing a book club at my church, maybe I will try and do a book club here also. Maybe I will do a dare to see who can count to a thousand with me. I’m not sure but I know that this book was an amazing life changer for me, so I hope you will read it!

What are some of the gifts you received today?