a new season

December. One of my favorite months of the year, the sights, the smells, the atmosphere that the cold weather seems to bring with it each year. Has this year really gone by so quickly already. It seems like we were just enjoying summer; spending hours down by the river, eating dinner on the deck, and sleeping outside on the trampoline. 

This eucharisteo list has lengthened over the past few weeks, and it's not because its Christmas time, and not because of everything that has been happening around us; but its because I am learning to see eucharisteo, to see it in every moment of everyday. These gifts that He shows me are not big miraculous moments, in fact they are often very simple. At first I thought they might even be too simple to count, yet God showed me that it is in those simple graces that I find Him the most.

When I find His gifts, I smile and thank Him, because sometimes those gifts are just simply perfect; always showing up at the right time.  How great He is! How wonderful He is to give us such precious moments as these . . . 

- cranberries bubbling on the stove

- laughter that spreads around the table

- fogging up the car windows to draw smiley faces

- waking up to see snow outside 

- tight hugs from the family you’ve missed

- watching little ones play; giddy and blissful

 

one thousand gifts

A dare to live fully right where you are … this is the challenge that I have been encouraged by since reading the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It's a dare to list one thousand gifts, a dare to an emptier, fuller life.

We can only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Perhaps this is what encouraged me…challenged me, to take up this dare; that my faith may give thanks.
 

Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives, It prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ. How are we supposed to accept His free gift of salvation if we do not return to Him with thanksgiving? It needs to become my daily habit to speak this language of thanks, a habit of continually running back to God and magnifying Him with thanksgiving; praising Him with gratitude for the gifts that He unfolds in front of me everyday. This is Eucharisteo – the Greek word for thanksgiving – its root words mean grace and joy. I want to learn how to live eucharisteo, I want to see the grace moments that unfold before me. Listing these grace gifts is teaching me to embrace a fuller, deeper eucharisteo… this was the challenge that I was captivated by.

1. the shooting star that captured my attention
2. the crunch of fallen autumn leaves beneath my feet
3. the words of a bible study that fill the room with a new challenge, to fully live the life that God has called me to, to live eucharisteo

It's the start of one thousand gifts, and it makes me smile. I want to know eucharisteo, I want to live it everyday.

“When I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me. This, this, makes me full, and I “magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30) and God enters the world. This dare to list one thousand things I love, is really a dare to name all the ways that God loves me.”  - Anna Voskamp

and so the blog begins . . .

For quite some time now I've fiddled with the idea of starting a blog. I have been inspired by so many great bloggers that I was encouraged to create a blog of my own as a place where I can gather all of my ideas, interests, and inspirations. I don't know where this may lead me, but it's an experience that I’m going to take one blog post at a time. If others read, great. If others get inspired, just as I have, even better!


So, here I go!