Thanks Living

Count your blessings.  We all know the saying.  Have you ever started counting and gotten all the way to a thousand?  What started as a friend's challenge for Ann Voskamp led to her best selling book, One Thousand Gifts.

Since I haven't actually read the book, this isn't a recommendation.  I'll add it to my long list of reads I may or may not get to this year (or next for that matter). But I love the concept behind the book. My friend sent me the video clip below, and it really resonated with me because it so eloquently echos what I have been experiencing in my own personal walk with God.  Slowing down.  Opening my eyes.  Waking up.

Phoebe and I started a blessings journal.  We haven't gotten to a thousand yet, but we're working on it.  This life is a gift.  This life is beautiful.  Bountiful.

So I am thankful.

I am thankful.

I am thankful for dirty dishes because it means I am fed. I am thankful for laundry because I have clothes on my back. I am thankful for dust because it means I have shelter.  I am thankful for toys and wet towels on bathroom floors.  I am thankful for sticky fingers and chocolate milk mustaches. I'm thankful for raindrops on flowers and puffy, white clouds.  I am thankful for peanut butter cookies and purple tennis shoes.  I'm thankful for music and laughter and dance, for squishy babies and rainbows and marriage and sunset after glorious sunset!

I am thankful.

While you scurry to get the gravy in the boat and the bird cooked just right,  the kids won't sit still while Grandpa says Grace, and the life that you live seems like a colorful blur of madness...STOP.

Look right.

Look left.

Do you see them?

Abundance

Grace

Mercy

Freedom

Faith

Hope

Love

EXTRAORDINARY LOVE

Gifts

Give Thanks!

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION

"Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country ...."(Note: the entire Thanksgiving Proclamation can be viewed at the Library of Congress website: www:http://www.facebook.com/l/3939e;loc.gov)

Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;

Talk of all His wondrous works!

Glory in His holy name;

Let the hearts of those rejoice whoseek the Lord!

Seek the LORD and His strength;

Seek His face evermore!

Remember His marvelous works
which He has done...
Sing to the LORD, all the earth;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonders among all peoples.
For the LORD is great andgreatly to be praised;

He is also to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the people are idols,

But the LORD made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before Him,

Strength and gladness are in His place.
...Give to the LORD the glory dueHis name;...

Oh, worship the LORD in thebeauty of holiness!...
Let the heavens rejoice, and let theearth be glad;

And let them say among the nations,"The LORD reigns."

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;

Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.

Then the trees of the woods shallrejoice before the LORD...
Oh, give thanks to the LORD,for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever...

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel

From everlasting to everlasting!
And all the people said, "Amen!"
and praised the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:8-36

GIVE THANKS!!

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION

"Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country ...."

(Note: the entire Thanksgiving Proclamation can be viewed at the Library of Congress website: www:http://www.facebook.com/l/3939e;loc.gov)

Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who
seek the Lord!
Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
Remember His marvelous works

which He has done...

Sing to the LORD, all the earth;
Proclaim the good news of His
salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.

For the LORD is great and
greatly to be praised;
He is also to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the people are idols,
But the LORD made the heavens.
Honor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and gladness are in His place.

...Give to the LORD the glory due
His name;...
Oh, worship the LORD in the
beauty of holiness!...

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the
earth be glad;
And let them say among the nations,
"The LORD reigns."
Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.
Then the trees of the woods shall
rejoice before the LORD...

Oh, give thanks to the LORD,
for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever...
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!

And all the people said, "Amen!"

and praised the LORD.

1 Chronicles 16:8-36