Saturday, October 6, 2012

Thanks.

Thankfulness. I have SO much to be thankful for and when I stop and think about it for a minute, it can become overwhelming when my eyes and heart are awakened to how much I am blessed with. I am acutely aware of how blessed I am and yet, how often do I take time in my day to truly recognize the gifts I have been given and give thanks?
Last year around this time, I started reading Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Gifts". If you have not yet read it, I would encourage you to do so. I have been challenged this year to observe the fingerprints of God - the blessings in my day - the gifts - and choose a posture of thankfulness. I am not always very good at it. I am guilty of complaining and hurtful words. I still have much to learn about what it means to live out thankfulness. 

Over the course of the last few weeks, an attitude of thanks has probably been the farthest from my mind. In a season of finding myself overwhelmed, I have neglected to see the gifts in my day, I have neglected to choose joy. And still, in my heart of ungratefulness, I am offered grace. Daily. I am given a second chance to extend grace, to choose thanks, to live out joy.
 

The brilliant don’t deny the dark but they are the ones who always seek the light in everything. This is not ignorance. This is imperative

Ann sums it up beautifully I think. In choosing to take a posture of thankfulness, I am not choosing to negate the darkness, but rather I choose take note of the specs of light within that darkness.

Here is to not just a weekend of giving thanks, but another year of learning what it means to live out thankfulness and the joy that takes root because of thanks!

Thankful for...
  • new homes that begin new starts.
  • people who choose to do life with each other.
  • comforting smells of baking that replace the "new apartment smell".
  • second chances.
  • music that speaks to the heart when you can't seem to come up with the words on your own.
  • cozy sweatpants and warm sweaters on cool fall days.
  • cups of hot coffee to warm up cold hands.
  • massages that loosen an incredibly stiff neck.
  • a God who pursues.
  • afternoon naps that refresh.
  • sistah's from otha mistahs.
  • doors that have opened and others that have closed.

1 comment:

Jodi Friesen said...

Does that mean you got the apartmenbt?? We'll have to talk on Monday.