Recently, I started reading Ann Voskamp's blog, and I loved the way she writes and her transparency and love for God and people, so I decided to buy her book, One Thousand Gifts, with a gift card I received for my birthday. It was a wonderful read, and I definitely recommend it. It was in there that I learned the word eucharisteo, which in a basic sense means 'thanksgiving.' Her whole book centered around the theme of thanksgiving, and how she started writing down one thousand gifts - one thousand things she was thankful for. Sometimes they were big things, but many times they were little everyday things that we take for granted. She said that giving thanks precedes joy - it is in giving thanks that we get joy. So I decided to try it. I've been writing down my own 'one thousand gifts.' And this is what I've noticed: as I've written down my thanks and learned to find things to be thankful for, my attitude has changed. I am gaining a more positive attitude, and a gentler one. I don't always have a good attitude, but I see myself slowly changing. It is hard to be grumpy and negative when you're thankful. I've also found that I'm starting to see the good in the things I dislike - what Ann Voskamp calls "the hard eucharisteo." For example, we received yet another medical bill, and my initial reaction was frustration, but then I wrote down in my journal that I was thankful for good medical care. Another time, I was frustrated about the sequester, and the income we'll be losing, but then I found myself thanking God for both my husband and I having jobs. I'm not nearly to one thousand gifts yet - I only hit #131 today - but I'm thankful that I'm learning to be more thankful. It's helped me to see just how much the Lord has blessed me, in ways I used to overlook.
Here are excerpts from my list:
1. food on the table
6. hot tea
9. my husband
11. sunrises & sunsets
17. no more mice
25. my puppy
29. the park with my Jesus sisters (sisters in Christ)
33. tissues!
38. rain
50. juice boxes :)
54. spring weather!
56. paintings that remind me of France
68. dishwasher
72. uncomfortable grace
87. raclette :)
93. babies (to cuddle) :)
96. tulips growing unexpectedly in my pots!
98. pretty dresses
104. texts from my husband
107. dolphins
109. my baby nephew (born on the day I wrote that)
117. new friends
120. the ability to serve
124. a great job
131. the French dwarf marigold from my husband that is sitting on my kitchen windowsill
