Thankful

Quiet gifts from His Hand yesterday:

~ generous friend who gave opportunity to visit her in Paris for a few days

~ wooden beams overhead in sleeping loft--what hand hundreds of years ago hewed this wood?

~ shoppers lined at the grocery, each with a long baguette dangling out of basket

~ walking home with days groceries: salad, cheese, bread

~ church bells tolling time throughout the day, the centuries

~stepping from June glare into hush of old worship shadows

~pigeons cooing off peaks of steep, patina green roofs

~ narrow medieval streets

~ walking cobblestone back into history

~children playing in the sandbox by Notre Dame, mothers sitting in shade on park benches

~boxes of spilling geraniums in balcony windows tied up with wrought iron

~the serpentine Seine, bridges arching over her winding way

~lowly prayer in cathedral heights

~careful work of nameless craftsmen, toiling long, dizzingly high, all for the glory of God--because He saw the work, so it mattered

~praying in places where rushing, broken humanity has stopped for more than a thousand years to praise, worship, repent. My footsteps join theirs.

~Latin song, praise, softly filling the soaring archways of Notre Dame

~ jingling keys of the janitor as he bows and prays throughout St.- Germaine- Des- Pres, a place of worship since the 11th century. I watch his lips move, listen to low French words whispered. He is the faithful keeper of the door.... the thousand year door.

Lord, to just be a keeper of the door. Wherever I am, You are there. And I can be a keeper of the door.

(Thank you for your prayers for this farm sparrow. I am humbly grateful and He carries.)

Measureless

"Great things are they that you have done, O Lord my God!

How great your wonders and your plans for us!

There is none who can be compared with you.

Oh, that I could make them known and tell them!

But they are more than I can count."

~Ps. 40:5-6

Father God, do I live believing that Your gifts are endless, countless? Wake me up today to see.

Photo: peacock's rich fan from a family walk through the park last week

A Saturday Psalm

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

Children wrapped in picnic blanket and sunset on front lawn,
laying back into words and imagination and a good day dimming...

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Sun bouquets found in ditches, tied up with laughter curls

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Birding Boy, watching wings and darts of brilliance

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Pastry rolled out, ready for the filling

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

The glaze of shells, simply shimmering...

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Flaking sweet in sunlight's warmth,

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.

A humble hymns of common graces. Plain Praise. Today we slow to see, sing, a simple Saturday Psalm.

We give thanks, Father. You are good. Your love endures forever.

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May we invite you to join the Gratitude Community?

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a personal soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you either simply your name or a web link to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Where's the Joy?

Reading through the Gratitude Community Blogroll ministers to this soul in meaningful ways. Thank you for joining and sharing what you are learning from embracing a lifestyle of "in everything give thanks."

From Early Morning Musings

" "Where's the joy?" I asked myself Monday mid-morning...

I'd started right, time spent in prayer and scripture first thing, then time spent planning the day. I was plowing through my list with determination, if not enthusiasm.... but still the whole morning felt like drudgery, and the boys felt like anchors around my legs with their whining and complaints and new messes. Why don't I feel satisfied when I'm doing all I set out to do?...

Tuesday, yesterday morning, I braced myself. Moms and kids coming for our moms' group at 9:30. Always the pressure is on to get as much accomplished as possible on mornings when guests are coming. Always the extra messes created by the boys are less tolerable on those mornings. Always I misjudge and don't leave myself enough time to get all I want to done before they arrive. Thankfully, my productive day Monday left me with just the basics to do Tuesday morning. Vacuum. Wash the floors. Make a coffee cake and coffee to share at snack time. I relaxed and let the boys be boys while we cleaned and prepared. I smiled at them and helped them and loved them.... I did have enough time, and when 9:30 arrived all was ready.

What was the difference between my two mornings? ....

I realized that Monday, in all my goal setting and agenda-making, I hadn't left much room for thankfulness. I was so focused I didn't have attention to spare on appreciating the small things. Or giving thanks to my Maker. Abiding in Him and letting Him guide my actions and responses. And I felt no joy or pleasure in the day...

I think my priorities were jumbled, and my list of things to do was at the top, instead of honoring Christ with my attitude, treating my little ones with patience and kindness, breathing thanks for all I've been given."

Read Marie's compelling post in its entirety here....

:::

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a personal soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you either simply your name or a web link to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Making Dandelion Wine

Notes from around the gratitude community on Making Dandelion Wine




Mama Whitney at Hearts of Gratitude writes:

"The gifts listed here are things I saw as barriers initially but, with the help of the Lord, are now opportunities for me to trust the Lord: Barriers now Opportunities.

105. My hubby's night meetings were a nuissance at first that really tempted me to anger. I now see how kind of the Lord to bestow the gift of a husband who provides for his family in addition to giving me opportunities to accomplish things I would not normally have time to get done. Thank You, Lord, for showing me that I can redeem the time with Your grace!

104. Food limitations due to food allergies is showing me I have a real opportunity to serve my family. This "barrier" is really a gift from the Sovereign Lord to help me grow in putting others first, beginning with my family!

103. Not having a clue of what to do with 25-pounds of brown sweet rice could've been a barrier but instead it has become an opportunity to be creative in my cooking and trusting God to help me in that. ...."

For more listing of how to barriers may be opportunities, making Dandelion Wine, read the rest of her thought-provoking entry here...

~~

And this post at Life is the essence of reframing the world. A breathtaking post that mustn't be missed. Mendelt's wife, Marisa, went home to the Lord in December, after a year long struggle with breast cancer:

"At the end of the day, life is beautiful or ugly. It depends from what angle you look."

His post Looking from Different Angles is achingly powerful.....

:::

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a personal soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you either simply your name or a web link to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Grace Allowances

Inbox notes and thoughts from around the Gratitude Community... A humble (happy!) privilege to learn from each of your lives...

Seeing Shift:

"When I am faithful in writing (down my gratitute) I notice a huge shift in my thinking.

It helps direct this mind to all the amazing blessings laid out in front of me everyday. Instead of concentrating on the chaos that is life with 5 littles and the endless chores I feel blessed to have the opportunities to take care of them all.

I feel it in my soul the peace and true joy that comes over me as I write down the smallest things, but they aren't small now. I have stopped, taken a moment to say thank you and really seen the blessing for what it is: a gift from above." ~Meg

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Sin Defense:

"May I share one more benefit I’ve discovered from gratitude? A thankful heart fills it and blocks out room for sin. When I am being thankful, I can’t envy. They’re incompatible! When I’m being thankful, I can’t covet. It knocks down pride and conceit as gratitude reminds me of where every good and perfect gift comes from. Giving thanks doesn’t allow room for complaining, grumbling. None. The very act of thanking God (seeing His gifts) turns my head away from opportune sin.

A grateful spirit is nothing – nothing without the Giver behind it all. Just like prayer I suppose. It’s a useless trivial action on its own, but because of the Merciful One who is listening and responding, it becomes a powerful heart-changing step I can take!" ~Chris, Edmonton, Canada

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Aware:

"Sometimes I find if difficult.... to remember to be thankful, to see the presence of the Immortal in the everyday. Reading... even the seemingly mundane objects of your world lifts me above what I see, or how I feel, to become aware of what IS." ~Sherilyn, Bangladesh

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Soul Sight:

Wearing gratitude glasses really does clear up my near-sightedness. I've never journaled in my life (always thought about it, meant to, but was inspired to really do it through your posts) and am loving it...giving pencil lead to God. ~Meagan in MI

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The Endless Gifts continue.....

Lord, we give You thanks for....

quiet days of nearby Mennonites, windmill keeping time with simple lives

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homemade loaves sliced in warm light,

peanut butter spread, smoothies and happy faces waiting

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a bouquet (and fungus find) picked from woods by little hands,

carefully placed to surprise at breakfast table

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hushed wonder of new niece days

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Mennonite homestead, laundry flapping in spring winds, horses in fields

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shadow self-portrait as the tractor driver, picking stones as suns sinks lower

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Hung over desk in the study, a gentle reminder for this Mama to daily sacrifice,

to pluck Feathers for this Nest,

an unspeakably gracious gift from Amy at A Mile in My Shoes

(Researcher exradordinare, Amy found that a poster of Koester's, "Moulting Ducks," may be procured from The Frye Art Museum in Seattle )

:::

God's Grace:

"Here dies another day

During which I have had eyes, ears, hands

And the great world round me;

And with tomorrow begins another.

Why am I allowed two?"

~G.K. Chesterton

(photo by 9-yr-old Hope-girl who ran to find a camera to capture the colors God brushed across the skies)

Lord of all, for all these things, we give thanks...

:::

Uprighting the Earth

I've known she's been dying for quiet some time and (dare I confess?) no remorse has gnawed away at these insides, no aching sadness slowly draining. Just a happy relief washes over me when I think of it. Frankly, she needed to go, her demise long overdue.

Rest in peace, my Drama Queen. You who listened to the news and ranted and raved. You who dove into online theological polemics, internally wrangling wildly, blood pressure rising. You who fell captive to crisis and commotion. Adieu. I do not mourn your passing.

For I discovered your impotence. Your absolute and utter inability to effect change. You held me rapt too long, riveting my attention horizontally, on those around me. All your fuss, your finger-pointing, your flapping about, distracted me from a vertical perspective. From Him who Reigns over all.

As you, eristical one, laggardly expire, I quiet. Peace comes softly. Old rankled skin molting, new contented life emerging, I'm discovering deep, universal change comes in surprising, unexpected ways.

Not in criticism, negativity, sensationalism. But in praise.

"May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. Then the
land will yield its harvest...." ~ Ps. 67:5-6

Our land will yield a good crop when the people praise. Our culture will produce bounty when we give thanks. Our nations will bear fruit when we exalt.

So will this heart.

But does gratitude, praise, worship capture anyone's imagination, vision, life? Why do we find the good, the lovely, the beautiful so... insipid? Why do we thirst for the bad, the ugly, the contentious.... and spew out the glory-worthy as bland?

Couldn't anyone use a little good news today?

Rod Dreher, a popular conservative columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons," recently wrote (in the comments of this post),

"I blog about negative stuff for the same reason that newspapers aren't filled with good news: because *usually* (though not always), "good news" isn't that interesting to talk about."

I understand. I relate. It's a common consensus. Who can market gratitude, praise, good news?It is so: Good News often seems less than compelling. I too have often brushed it aside, apathetic. I pray for grace to learn new ways:

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work..." ~Ro.1:16

Good news, praise, thanksgiving, exalting, this is the power of God at work. This is what will change our hearts. This is what will prosper our land, bless us with yield, bounty, harvest.

And, really, why wouldn't it? Because when we think on the lovely, the noble, the right, "whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy" (Phil. 4:8) ... we are thinking on very God Himself:

"Sing praises to His name, for it is lovely." ~Ps. 135:3

He is lovely and all that is lovely in this cosmos reflects but the substance of Him. To think on the good is to think on God.

Yet we live in an upside-down, inverted world. We reject the praiseworthy as vapid and unremarkable. Boring. Juvenile.

And that which is scandalous, disagreeable, we find fascinating, intriguing, worthy of attention. Meriting discussion. An engagement for the intellects, the pundits. The lovely? Dismissed.

So it has always been:

"And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men..." ~Isa.53:2-3

We rejected Him once. Forbid we would again.

No, no grief as I bury my negativity. I'm done with my addiction to criticism, with my drama queen.

I whisper praise, this tongue's new language, and feel the land beneath my feet swell with abundance, the earth uprighted.

Loveliness, God, embraced.

:::

The Endless Praise continues....

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spongy hearts discovered in woods grace Nature Shelf

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Mama's silver hair in golden light leading little hands to

pin, stitch, sew blanket

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delicate petals carefully sketched, eyes slowing to see

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tilling loamy earth, burying seeds, family care

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Joy! Smile-to-smile, face-to-face!

Years of words on screens winnow a path for us to meet!

:::

:::

The Perfect Ps! They effused exuberance, warmth, vibrancy.

I couldn't soak them up enough.

:::

(Photos of Tonia and family courtesy of a very talented photographer)

In need of joy's elixir? Take a moment and click through the Gratitude Community in the sidebar's blogroll. You'll be blessed. Nothing changes the world like giving thanks.



Have you considered establishing gratitude as a personal soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community! Scroll to the bottom of this post for details on how to begin and join the community)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Mixing in Thanks...

"The great painter boasted that he mixed all his colours with brains,

and the great saint may be said to mix all his thoughts with thanks.

All goods look better when they look like gifts."

--G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

And isn't that what it all is? Gifts, good gifts, from His hand. I'm learning to mix my simple life with thanks.

:::

ground beef turnovers, wrapped while steaming, ready for the field

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Joshua volunteering to wash up the dishes while I pack meals

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farmers eating food on field's hem, resting for a moment from planting food

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dirt and kids and fed husband and that warm feeling of being alive

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looking at life in the rearview mirror

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barren fields ready to swell with seeds, life, yield

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cluck of a rooster and hens, children clucking too

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speckled feathers, stone-flecked barn

:::

Sunday morning coming down,

Little Girl waiting in light for Daddy, shoes, church

:::

living in Light, shoes on,

pilgrimaging towards Father, Heaven, Home.

:::

In need of joy's elixir? Take a moment and click through the Gratitude Community in the sidebar's blogroll. You'll be blessed. Nothing revives a heart like giving thanks.

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a personal soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Change in the air....

Notes to inbox and around the Gratitude Community... Trees are budding, tulips swelling, exploding in color... change is in the air.



"A wonderful writer, teacher and friend taught the Sunday school class at our church last week. She taught about Miriam and one of her points was about how Miriam led the women in praise. She encouraged us that this one of our goals as women - to lead those around us in good things to the glory of God. She used your blog as an example.

When she was describing the 1000 gifts list, I knew I had to do this. Not because its a fun web trend or an interesting project, but because I need to do this. I'm one of those women who easily sees what everyone else has that I'm missing out on. When, in reality I have so much to be thankful for.

My heart needs to change. My mindset needs to be changed. I need to lead my daughters in thankfulness and praise. Not in grumbling and bitterness. So here goes.

Thanks to my Sunday school teacher and to you - I'm changing." ~Jackie at Redeemed

:::

"Actually, I started doing this a number of years ago, listing things I'm grateful for. I have a journal that is specifically for this purpose. A place where I have written the outflowing of a heart of pure gratefulness. How good it is to revisit these pages, my old friends.

With a heavy sigh I realize, I have grown away from this habit. I am realizing as I read these entries that not only does my attitude change but so does my focus of life. ~ The Patchwork Heart

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"So many gifts come our way unnoticed. It is our "awareness" of the gifts that brings us joy, peace of heart, and thankfulness." ~Nadie at My Dance of Life

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"I love to read and re-read about gratefulness and have been meditating on these Scripture thoughts, "Because your love is better than life...my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods... The earth is filled with his unfailing love." I was struck by all this as I rode my bicycle to work through a trail next to a river the other day. The sun was casting a warm yet hazy glow over the earth and I was FILLED. ~ Tiffany

:::

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a permanent soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Praise the Lord in the Assembly

If Monday morning feels heavy, a large week looming, take a moment and click a few blogs from the Gratitude Community blogroll. You'll laugh, you'll cry with the wonder of it all, you'll warm and smile and feel the heaviness slip away. Praise does that.

Thank you to those standing in the great congregation giving Him praise --- you bless and my heart sings, a spring flower blooming after a long winter...

Notes from those jotting down the Gifts:

Seeing the Abundant Giver

"This gift list has transformed the way I think and view life. Suddenly, I am thankful for dirty dishes as they are an indication of a well-fed family. The insignificant has become compelling. Beauty abounds all around. The Giver imparts abundantly and extravagantly if we but have eyes to see. ~ Angie @ Sonflower

Reality Thinking

"I’m practicing the discipline (and joy) of giving thanks in times of stress.

There was a time when I would have dismissed this idea and would have simply chalked up the practice to being nothing more than ‘positive thinking’, in a new-agey-sort-of-way. But I’ve come to see that truth be told, it’s not so much about ‘positive thinking’ as it is about ‘reality thinking.’

Recognizing the gifts from God that ooze out around us is simply facing reality isn’t it? Seeing reality. Honest to goodness I feel like for the 1st time in my life I am beginning to see things clearly. ‘Open my eyes that I may see..’" ~ Chris in Edmonton

Abiding in Christ

"After 17 years as a Christian I think I have finally understood a glimmer of what it means to abide in Christ.

This week I [studied] Col. 3:1-2...especially what it means to seek things above and set our minds on things above. I realized that all these long years that I have been battling my anger issues I have focused my thoughts and efforts on the anger...not on Christ.

Even though I knew I needed to abide in Christ and that he abides in me I didn't really understand what that meant... Well, now I do.

I need to fix my mind on HIM continually and seek those things above.

Now, I am trying to focus on blessings every time I feel frustation. I created this homekeeping/gratitude journal...I leave it out on my kitchen desk so that I don't get too busy to notice it.

I have been inspired, challenge, convicted and enlightened." ~ Laura in CA

~~
So give me the details: is there anything to do besides copy the graphic and start my list? Do I need to link to your list? ~Heather

A few simple thoughts to begin the 1000 Gift List:

1. Pray that He may open the eyes of our hearts

2. Begin giving thanks for the daily washing in His fountain of Gifts--just on a scrap piece of paper or in a journal--- notice and write down from the obvious to little... and begin to feel more joy, less stress, better health, more connected in your relationships, and more delight in your everyday life. Praise is what we are made for!

3. If you'd like to blog your list, feel free to use the 1000 Gifts graphic. No need to link back to this quiet place. If, however, you'd like to encourage others to join the Gratitude Community, or invite othersto boost mental and soul health by reading the chorus of praise in the Gratitude Community, you may link back to here and the Gratitude Community Blogroll.

4. If you'd like to add your blog to the Gratitude Community, we'd love to hear from you! Email me a link to your blog, and your worship will edify the body of believers.

5. If you'd prefer to quietly jot your list down in a journal, you are still warmly invited to join the community-- drop a line, and we'll just add your first name to the list, and we'll feel one with you in thanksgiving.

6. Count the endless blessings!

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a permanent soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Listening to the Song

Slowing to listen yesterday to the the quiet sounds of a singing world....

flaking sound of scooping oatmeal

robins singing early

whistle of pressure cooker

echo of children laughing in empty rooms

tractor humming far off in fields

book pages turning

creak of opening mailbox

toddler sobs ebbing to peace

boys humming hymns

click of seatbelt

fender rattling with stones of gravel roads

wind rushing through open truck window

pigeons fluttering off barn's tin roof

child speeding by on whir of bicycle spokes

horse hooves clopping down a sideroad

laundry flapping

buggy clattering

squeak of old swing swaying

suds sloshing

his laugh

breathing of tired childen deep in sleep

click of last light out

Today's Scripture Drink: Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! ~Ps. 150:6

Have you considered establishing gratitude as a permanent soul fixture? Just grab a scrap of paper lying around and begin counting the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin your own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Feeling for His Face

Dark things in dreams chase her to wakefulness, and she cries for me. Her soft sobs stir me to consciousness, those pleas for "Mama! Mama!" shaking me awake. Through sleep’s fog, I find her, this little one, her hair damp and curled to her forehead in fear.

“It’s okay, Shalom. Mama’s here, Mama’s here.”

I draw her up close.

In between the waves of fears, tears, that wrack her little body, she tries to catch her breath, reaching, turning, struggling.

Anxiously, her fingers find my face. Ten fingertips gently brush along my lips, patter across my eyelids, touch my cheek. Like fingertips tentatively feeling along the embossing of Braille, again and again, she lightly reads my face.

“Is it you, Mama? Is it you who are really here with me?”

Into the dark, I smile. This has always been her way, this face reading, this face feeling. A babe of only a few months, she would howl through the night, and I would crouch over her basket, and Shalom, between sobs, would stretch frantically for me, clutching my face in her chubby fists. Desperately, whimpering, she’d pull my face close to her wet cheeks, run her hand across my mouth, rest her fingers on my eyes…and then sniffle… closes her eyes…eyelashes would still, breath slow, fingers relax…and sleep would softly fall.

Little Child needed no holding, no rocking, no nursing. Peace came, but nothing had changed. Except the assurance of my presence. All was well.

I know my own nightmares, day terrors, desert hallucinations that pursue across the sands. Waking to the everyday gifts, the common miracles, daily graces, this is my way of feeling for His face, my way of knowing He is pressed close.

I read Him in syrup melting down into stacks of pancakes, in the heavy breathing of slumbering children under old quilts, in the moss curling around old trunks down in the woods. A monarch lights on the clump of coneflowers by the picket fence, we linger after the noon picnic in the surprise of Indian summer, cold water runs from my tap. These are the graces, the magnanimous, munificent gifts, that I daily seek to run my fingers across, feeling for His face.

In my common deserts, I have found the daily discipline of fingering for Him in small things, in giving thanks for all that is, reveals the contours of Who He is. This waterfall of little grand gifts unveils the features of His countenance, the gentleness of His heart.

Waking to God near as we intentionally open eyes and give thanks, we experience the words that Pascal wrote more than 300 years ago,

"Instead of complaining that God had hidden Himself, you will give Him thanks for having revealed so much of Himself." (Pensees)

And yet we do not fixate "on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen" (2 Cor 4:17, 18 NEB). The daily gifts are not ends in themselves, but rouse us to become present to His abiding Presence. They lead us along the beam, back to His love.

I can rest. I have caressed and know. He is close.


Father? I feel You everywhere. You are beautiful and I have nothing to fear.


Today's Drink of Scripture:
"The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you." ~NIV Numbers 6:23-25
"God bless you and keep you, God smile on you and gift you." ~MSG Numbers 6:23-25

Consider beginning your own gift list...feeling for His face
(adapted from a post originally posted 9/21/07)

Living a Prayer

Last night I visited the blogs of folks who are joining the Gratitude Community (see blogroll in sidebar), reading through their own 1000 Endless Gifts lists.

Can I tell you: I couldn't stop smiling! People deeply seeing, seeing the small for what it is: wondrously magnificent gifts from His Hand. Giving me eyes to see. Brought tears. Wanted to grab somebody and dance in praise to Father!

When we pay attention to the daily gifts, we live aware, joining the poets and saints. When we vocalize a running stream of praise, naming the blessings, it is like living a prayer.

The world is an unspeakably beautiful place. When we attend to it, give Him thanks for it, the joy is more than a heart can hold.

Today, I burst.


~~Notes that found their way to the inbox:

• Last night as I was tucking my youngest in, I noticed a freckle on his bare shoulder. I felt an urge to take a picture of that beautiful mark! But I just kissed it instead. The picture may still yet be forthcoming! Thank you for helping God to give me new eyes of wonder! ~Laura Boggess

• I shared my starting of this gift list with the moms in a ministry I am involved in at my church. I have had so many non-blogging moms come to me & tell me how writing a gift list has changed their life...focusing on their gifts not on their burdens. ~LivingStones4Moms

• ...My own 1000 gifts list has really changed my life. ~Healed of Depression

• For Christmas 2007 I gave my husband, children, parents, and a few treasured friends handmade "Gratitude Journals." This project was inspired by [the 1000 Gifts] and the Lord put all the pieces together for me.

It was such a blessing to me to pour myself into these creations for the people I love the most! After the holiday as I was praying for the people I had given journals too, I was driven with pure curiosity and inspiration to create a blog of my own with multiple authorship for my family and friends to not only list their 1000 Gifts in their journals, but to also share some of their Gifts with the rest of us on "our " blog! It has been such a blessing to pull up my blog and read encouragements from friends as far as France, and as close as my darling husband!

The uniqueness of what we each find as "little blessings" is random and beautiful. ~ Jessica Morlan

May today you live the eucharisitic life: Grace! Gratitue! Joy!
(And if you have a moment, check out the blogs in the Gratitude Community -- I'd love to dance in praise with you!)

An inch of surprise...miles of gratefulness

"That I may go to that altar of God,

to the God of my joy and gladness,

and on the harp I will give thanks to you,

O God, my God."

~Ps. 43:3-4

Thank You for being my joy and gladness--it is found in No One or nothing else (1007)

Bibles with broken backs (1008)

early morning dusting old floors (1009)

windless spring days (1010)

pushing stroller heavy with children (1011)

boy-collected pussy willows (1012)

moon light falling on pillowcases (1013)

young voices praying, "Our Father who art in Heaven...." (1014)

what the mail brings (1015)

young hands happily, diligently, washing pots and pans (1016)

boys spontaneously reciting poetry (1017)

stones of the back stoop calling us to take a walk through all this budding life (1018)

dash of squirrels (1019)

breakfast by lamplight (1020)

watch hands always saying it's time to pray (1021)

sister handing out freshly sharpened pencils and smiles to learning brothers (1022)

meals planned, weekly menu posted, ingredients stocked, happy tummies (1023)

long eyelashes, big world (1024)

eucharistic living: Grace! Gratitude! Joy! (1025)

"With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD :

"He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." "

Ezra 3:11
(1026)

“Whatever causes us to look with amazement opens “the eyes of our eyes.” We begin to see everything as gift. An inch of surprise can lead to miles of gratefulness.” ~David Steindl-Rast

Consider establishing gratitude as a permanent soul fixture, by purposing to daily count the blessings, with your own 1000 Endless Gifts:

Why begin you own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Endless Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the Gratitude Community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts

Choose to Pour the Oil

I know drought. Land baked as hard as concrete. You have to take a screwdriver to scrape back the earth if you are looking for embryo sprouting tender green.

We’ve done that, he and I. Walked fields shattered wide open, cracked mouths gaping for rain. Bent over and clawed back ground, stared into the barren dust, and wondered if the heavens might ever show mercy and drench us with life.

That is one thing I understand: no rain in the land. I can see the shadows hanging over her eyes, hear the scratchy ache in her voice, that widow woman telling Elijah that though he may like her to fetch water and bread, she doesn’t think she is feeding too many folks today: “I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it---and die.” (1 Kings 17:12)

Bleak.

And what does God say? “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.”

Is it possible? Do I know anything about that kind of trust? When there’s no rain in the land?

“So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”

My life gets dry. Recession looms, stresses mushroom, responsibilities overwhelm. It’s easy to grow a bit hard, crack open, weary for refreshment.

And I wonder if our daily lives are characterized by as much joy and gratitude as we presume? Are those emotions something we believe in, give mental assent to…but rarely feel. I wonder if we don’t allow our well-being too often to be at the whim of mainly external factors. We rely, wait, on some outer emotional weather, our daily environment, to rain down some joy, shower us with happiness. Sadly, we let something of such paramount import as our daily joy to be unpredictable and fleeting, dependent on environmental happenings rather than a permanent, interior fixture of our being.

If we know gratitude bathes us in joy, why isn’t it a trait we nurture in our everydays, when there is no rain in the land? Why does joy seem more like an evasive mirage for most people, an oasis we rarely arrive at, put down roots and make our long term address?

Researcher Rollin McCraty offers a supposition:

“We propose that a main factor is that people generally do not make efforts to actively infuse their daily experiences with greater emotional quality…. Although most people definitively claim that they love, care, appreciate, it might shock many to realize the large degree to which these feelings are merely assumed or acknowledged cognitively, far more than they are actually experienced in their feeling world. In the absence of conscious efforts to engage, build, and sustain positive perceptions and emotions, we all too automatically fall prey to feelings such as irritation, anxiety, worry, frustration, self-doubt and blame.”

Why do we live dry? We do not remember or choose to pour the oil. We don’t actively infuse our common moments with the oil of gladness. Our default mode is to go gather sticks and prepare for heart death. Our habit of thinking is to live where there is no rain.

But there is always oil in the jar, always oil awaiting our intentional pouring. The more we give thanks, the more joy fills our reservoirs. The more we pour out in praise, the more gladness overflows the jar of our souls. I just but need to remember to deliberately pour.

Big Brother harasses Little Girl with menacing face and deep growl. Screams pierce the air. I only have two items stroked off my list of tasks. Farmer Husband’s standing there with bills in his hands but no cheques, explaining to me, through the wails, the rocketing input costs facing us this spring.

In the moment, there doesn’t feel like there is much rain in my land. There doesn’t feel like there is enough of me to go around. I want to push back, raise voice, conserve me. But the moments when I feel soul drought choking, that’s my flag to do what is counter-intuitive: to actively, wildly pour out the oil of gratitude. To intentionally choose to give thanks.

I take a deep breath, exhale, and with a whisper, tip the oil jar: “Father, I thank you for this family, for these two little children and their life and health, for a husband who cares about our future, for my two hands and feet to do the work You’ve given me. I thank you for simply being alive, breathing here with these people I love, living in the grace of the Cross.”

I feel water dripping down on my parched places, joy filling me. And it isn’t positive thinking that changes a mindset, that delivers fresh joy to the dry places. Why?

“[R]esearch in the neurosciences has made it quite clear that emotional processes operate at a much higher speed than thoughts,” posits McCraty. In other words, the emotional strength of our stresses grip us faster than any positive thinking can intervene.

I feel the reviving cool of joy only because to effectively change feelings, to change a heart, to gain control over emotions, one must engage not mere positive thoughts, but God-glorifying feelings.

“… strategies that encourage “positive thinking” without also encouraging positive feelings may frequently provide only temporary, if any, relief from emotional distress,”

concludes McCraty (emphasis in the original). And that is exactly what giving thanks is, the encouraging of the positive feeling of gratitude, the positive feeling of thankfulness, an intense emotion of appreciation. To transform our emotions, we must engage a counter emotion. “And in everything give thanks.”

There may be no rain in our land, and the drought of our interior landscape may feel as if it is unto death. But when the dryness burns, that is the precise time to remember to pour the oil.

For in the giving of thanks, joy rains down new life.

Today, Lord, when the dry times come today, and they will, remind me to pour the oil of gratitude. Gratitude lubricates a life, revives the withered places, and is what I am made for, for "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name" (Ps. 92:1-2)….

Consider cultivating gratitude as a permanent soul fixture, an interior trait, by purposing to daily count the blessings, with your own 1000 Gifts:
Why begin you own One Thousand Gift List --(drop me a line if you do, and I'll add you to the "1000 Gifts" blogroll in the sidebar-- we invite you to join the gratitude community!)

Read the listing of the endless Gifts