Thanksgiving Every Day, Every Moment

So, as I've said before, the book One Thousand Gifts changed my life.  Changed. my. life.  Well, almost as much as the Bible.  So this year, I felt like Thanksgiving Day was not unlike any other day for me.  Which is what we all really desire, right?  To be thankful in all circumstances, for this is what God desires for us who belong to Christ.  I had blinders on before.  I would say my thanks to God with broad sweeps - "Thank you God, for my salvation, for my family, my friends, my church and my health."  Really?!  That's sufficient?  God shows His love to us in the details of life.  In the ordinary, every day small things.  We just rarely take the time to pause and see them.  So now that I've been practicing this kind of life, I am aware of God's presence in a new way, as my Abba Father - my Daddy - who gives me good and perfect gifts many times a day.  I ran into a friend at church this past weekend and it was clear to me that the Lord had shown clearly to her this intimate love.  She has been struggling with feelings of loneliness and as we stood and talked awhile, she shared that the tears she was crying were not of sadness but of humility and gratitude because God had specifically arranged that she would see people at church that her soul needed to see.  He knows her - you, me - deeply.  Our innermost parts that were woven together by His hands and knit into being.  He knows exactly what will bring joy and music to our hearts and places those things in our line of sight - if we will only choose to see.  I started my gift list and I'm happy to say, I'm at #641 currently.  It was hard to narrow down my favorite quotes from the book but I definitely wanted to share some, so here goes:

"Could I live that - the choice to open the hands to freely receive whatever God gives?  If I don't, I am still making a choice.  The choice not to."


"A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.  This pen: this is nothing less than the driving of nails.  Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo."


"In naming that which is right before me, that which I'd otherwise miss, the invisible becomes visible."


"This act of naming grace moments, this list of God's gifts, moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side.  It really is a dare to name all the ways that God loves me."


"Life is not an emergency.  Life is brief and it is fleeting but it is not an emergency."


"The spirit to spirit combat I endlessly wage with Satan is this ferocious thrash for joy.  He sneers at all the things that seem to have gone hideously mad in this sin-drunk world, and I gasp to say God is good.  The liar defiantly scrawls his graffiti across God's glory, and I heave to enjoy God...and Satan strangles, and I whiten knuckles to grasp real Truth and fix that beast to the floor."


(From God's point of view) "You may suffer loss but in Me is anything ever lost, really?  Isn't everything that belongs to Christ also yours?  Loved ones still belong to Him - then aren't they still yours?  Do I not own the cattle on a thousand hills; everything?  Aren't then all provisions, in Christ also yours?  If you haven't lost Christ, child, nothing is ever lost."


"Worry is the facade of taking action when prayer really is.  And stressed, this pitched word that punctuates every conversation, is it really my attempt to prove how indispensable I am?  Or is it more?  Maybe disguising my deep fears as stress seems braver somehow."


"Are stress and worry evidences of a soul too lazy, too undisciplined, to keep gaze fixed on God?  To stay in love?  Isn't joy worth the effort of trust?  Because I kid no one: stress brings no joy."

"Every time fear freezes and worry writhes, every time I surrender to stress, aren't I advertising the unreliability of God?"


"To give thanks is an action and rejoice is a verb and these are not mere pulsing emotions.  While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things, because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving."


"The way through the pain is to reach out to others in theirs."

And lastly, in honor of this being my 29th year of life, I'll share the first 29 things on my list.....
1. Light filtering through the blinds
2. The smell of borrowed clothes
3. Wagging puppy dog tails
4. Warm cookies
5. Special package delivery
6. Children's laughter
7. Lily's hugs
8. Husband's arms wrapped around tight
9. Candle flickering
10. Glass of Moscato
11. Old hymns
12. Freshly cut grass
13. Food on the grill
14. Soul stirring worship
15. Toes in the sand
16. A toddler's mess proclaiming "I was here!"
17. The forming of a good habit
18. Manly facial hair
19. Gender surprise at birth
20. Learning
21. A handshake
22. Flowers emerging from soil again
23. Hiccups in utero
24. Laugh lines
25. Sweet perfume
26. Clank of ice cubes in a glass
27. Making goofy faces
28. A sparkle in the eye
29. Curiosity

So, yes, ALL is grace - everything God gives.  The big, the small, the simple, the hard; everything!  Will you take some time today to notice all the things around you?  To put a name to the ways God shows His love. I promise you, it will transform the way you live your days!