1,000 Gifts!

After reading a book by Ann Van Kamp, 1,000 Gifts, I started on a journey toward thankfulness.   My goal was to record with paper and pen 1,000 things that I recognized as coming from the hand of God.  It happened today.  I wrote my 1,000th  gift.  No fanfare.  Just a simple statement to proclaim the 1,000th gift I have received over the last 7 months.

#90.  The ring around the moon.
#235.  Waking up at Shirley's (my mother-in-law).
#302.  Wanting to get up and clean the house.
#406.  Wal-Mart being open late to fix a flat tire.
#524.  Knowing it's ok just to "be".
#679.  A bad dream about one of my children giving me empathy for parents who have suffered.
#788.  Time with a friend.
#830.  Time with Bettina and the boys.
#896.  Being home for Dad's surgery.
#1,000.  Deeper with YOU.

This list emerged out of transition, hardship, laughter, tears, uncertainty, gut-wrenching pain, and easy days of sitting in the sun.  The times I did not want to be thankful, I wrote thanks anyway.  When I was too tired to see any good in my life, I wrote thanks anyway.  When I was too hurt to find any good things, I wrote thanks anyway. 

The "good" things were easy to recognize and write:  laughter from my youngest, a telephone call from my oldest, the reaching for my hand by my middle.  Finding the thanks in the hard was ... hard.  It became a disciple to find those things that God has given me and record them as sacrifices of praise not only in my little notebook ... but in my brain.

The last entry is perhaps the most telling:  deeper.  I went deeper with every numbered Gratitude.  When ugliness crashed into my world, I gave thanks that ugliness contrasts the beauty of God.  When hurtful words settled on my ears, I gave thanks that words have power - and God's words of truth trump lies.  Every opportunity to see the bad was also shadowed by the greater opportunity to see the good.

I've developed a habit of gratitude.  Gratitude in itself is a gift to illuminate our souls.  Gratitude in the face of hardship is a tool to live abundantly above the norm.