For a few weeks now, I've been reading the blog, A Holy Experience. I was telling someone about it recently: the wife of a farmer, mother of six homeschooled kids...sounds a bit like the Wise family, just in English! The blogger is the author of 1000 Gifts, a book I am currently reading and that you might want to check out. Anyway, on her blog, she's encouraged people to join her in The JOY Dare.
In the Joy Dare, you strive to count 3 gifts a day from God...thanking Him for the little gifts He graciously offers us, all around us, every day...every day of the year. At the end of the year, I ought to have counted up at least 1000 gifts He's graciously bestowed upon me. Recognizing the small gifts and thanking Him for them grows joy in the little things that add up to...abundant life.
Count your blessings...
Name them one by one...
Count your blessings,
See what God has done.
To help us out, Ann posted a free printable of gifts to look for during the month of January. You can find it HERE. She's got an app you can load to your phone for free (just look up 1000 gifts in your app store), and use it to capture photos of the gifts, and it counts them for you. I'm currently up to 52.
When life doesn't always turn out like we'd expected... when siblings are taken to be with the Lord before we were ready to say goodbye-for-now... When babies don't come... When spouses don't show up... When we just can't find a job... When heroes say hurtful things... When it's hard to find joy in January's cold and darkness...
We can still count our blessings. He still came that we might have life abundant. He still deserves to be told thank you for the manna He provides in the desert journey towards the promised land of milk and honey. He is still worthy of our praises. And I have found that I can sing praises when I've been thanking Him...
...for a compliment the Artist gave as a side remark, not even knowing that she blessed my heart with it.
...for the bittersweet awesomeness of lemons.
...for my hot water bottle that has been sufficient to keep me warm enough to not need to turn on electric heat.
...for good sleep and hot showers and awesome water pressure.
...for sunrises...
...and for sunsets...
I've been playing the attitude of gratitude game since the summer of 2008...what you thankful for?... and I've had that little button on the side of the blog pretty much since I got back to France in 2010. And yet...I complained alot last year. I grew angry and bitter. My heart shriveled up into the cold black stone that it would remain to be if it were not for the awesomeness of our God. He is daily giving me a new heart, His heart, to replace mine. I determined at the end of last year that 2012 would be different. It will not end feeling so empty because He is still giving me gifts...every.single.day. And this year, I will count them.
I will thank Him.
18 days into the Joy Dare and I'm already thanking Him for gifts beyond the 3 that Ann sent me out to look for...
...for the free desserts the baker gave us yesterday because we were enjoying our lunch in her bakery so much. When we said, "Merci," she responded, "Bah, oui! C'est la France!" (But of course! That's France!)
...for the delicious molten chocolate lava cake my friend made for us at her birthday party.
...for the beautiful sunset I got to see on a night when I was somewhere where I could see the sunset.
...for the way the morning light hits the building across from mine and creates such a beauty to see first thing in the morning from my balcony.
