My journey of recording gifts in a gratitude journal started many months back while reading  Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts. I log gifts, graces, thanks joining brothers and sisters across the miles who, like me, have been blessed to have the eyes opened to the simplicity of the very Word of God. The simplicity of Christ.

Ann talks about our choices in the moments to either open the hands willingly to what He gives, what He allows, or clench the fists tight and choose bitterness.

Slowly I’m learning. Slowly my eyes are opening, my soul is wakening to the glorious truth of Eucharisteo.

“And he took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them…”(Luke 22:19)…..In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.” …The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks….But there is more, and I read it. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” ~from One Thousand Gifts

 

I’ve joined the hunt and I’ve logged past one thousand and counting…

  • 1. children snoring
  • 2. late night talks with teens
  • 3. hot showers
  • 468. quick repentance
  • 629. sunlight spilling through the windows
  • 750. grace in lack of understanding
  • 757. help with difficult relationships
  • 910. floors to mop
  • 925. his hands pulling weeds
  • 992. floating on the ocean’s waves
  • 1005. the anchor that holds in spite of the storm
  • 1108. basket of clothes to fold

… and the hunt continues, never ending.

We’ve allowed the enemy to blind us and we’ve forgotten the power that is in thanksgiving yet we dare to even attempt to enter His gates. But there is no other way.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. ~ Psalm 100:4
It is a discipline we can’t afford to resist. The very way to His Presence. I’ve learned that the giving of thanks in all things, in the hard things {1 Thessalonians 5:18} gets easier with practice. The eyes open wider and we begin to see that just as Ann has discovered, all truly is grace.
In the midst of those hard things of life when a daughter’s marriage unravels, when finances are rapidly decreasing, when once again bars of prison surround a loved one and you can feel the hearts of children breaking… we must make a choice. I’ve clinched my fists tight over and over again knowing that ultimately I’ll have to decide. I’ll have to open the hands in thanks and surrender once again to the One who took my place and gave thanks before He gave His body and poured out His blood. Or else I keep the fists closed tight and let the bitterness grow, hardening the heart.
We’re all hunting. And the amazing thing, the appalling thing I’ve discovered is that when I pause from counting blessings, giving thanks, hunting for His gifts and all the ways He loves me, whether it’s for a moment or a day or a horrifyingly longer period… I’m still hunting. Only then, in those moments, I find despair, frustration, bitterness and I hold them tightly with clinched fists.
And once again, it’s only when I begin to surrender, hands opened and lifted high, and let go of my right to hold on to the anger and forfeit my sense of entitlement… then I find thanks and then joy returns.
There’s no end to His blessings. So I’ll keep on counting the ways He loves me… and I’ll look for Him in those difficult things remembering He died to bring life. He turns sorrow to joy. He makes all things work together for good to those who love Him {Romans 8:28}.
Thank you, Lord!