i need words
I'm reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voscamp, a beautifully written book. Most books I have in my house don't make it past ten minutes of my time. Just a little ADD brought on I believe by extreme, oppressive heat. The heat that makes me just stare out my bedroom window, waiting for my world to blossom fall, to stop crackling. But this book I keep picking back up. She writes of her journey of gratitude, as she makes a list of one thousand gifts. The ordinary, the overlooked, the almost not there.
She has inspired me to make a new list of my own today. Every morning for about the past year, I have started out my day by writing thank you's to the Lord in my journal. Everything from appliances that work to the school principal caring.
I follow the thank you's with all I surrender in my day; then I ask that I can feel His love, really receive it for me that day. I learned this journaling from my pastor Ron Parrish. It's been essential in my healing. Gratitude can't share space with depression. When I skip this writing, it's like I'm spinning, losing ground, walls coming close. I can skip blogging, but not this.
So here's my list of gifts this afternoon:
1. Bacon-wrapped meatloaf bubbling in a hot oven in a cooler house.
2. David Crowder breathing life through melodies in my kitchen.
3. Justin Bieber providing some dance to slay away the afternoon sluggishness.
4. Sweaty soccer boy in my SUV, blonde hair kissed by the sun.
5. Boy with big hands playing a classical chord on the serious piano.
6. Blonde FunkNation with soapy hands cleaning up my mess.
7. A fluff-filled, black-nosed part bunny, part cat dog watching me.
8. The curve of a little smile.
9. Clever high heels from Target that never give up.
10. A worship dance party where His spirit falls like a cool breeze from the sky.
She has inspired me to make a new list of my own today. Every morning for about the past year, I have started out my day by writing thank you's to the Lord in my journal. Everything from appliances that work to the school principal caring.
I follow the thank you's with all I surrender in my day; then I ask that I can feel His love, really receive it for me that day. I learned this journaling from my pastor Ron Parrish. It's been essential in my healing. Gratitude can't share space with depression. When I skip this writing, it's like I'm spinning, losing ground, walls coming close. I can skip blogging, but not this.
So here's my list of gifts this afternoon:
1. Bacon-wrapped meatloaf bubbling in a hot oven in a cooler house.
2. David Crowder breathing life through melodies in my kitchen.
3. Justin Bieber providing some dance to slay away the afternoon sluggishness.
4. Sweaty soccer boy in my SUV, blonde hair kissed by the sun.
5. Boy with big hands playing a classical chord on the serious piano.
6. Blonde FunkNation with soapy hands cleaning up my mess.
7. A fluff-filled, black-nosed part bunny, part cat dog watching me.
8. The curve of a little smile.
9. Clever high heels from Target that never give up.
10. A worship dance party where His spirit falls like a cool breeze from the sky.