One Thousand Gifts

It is not common to pick up a book and read through it with every word on every page touching the depth of your heart. However it is possible! Further more, if you pick up this book, One Thousand Gifts, there is a good chance it is going to happen! It happened for me.

I don’t know if I have ever been moved so deeply, or touched so greatly through the pages in a book before.

As sinners and as members of this current culture and world, we are so easily self-focused. We want what we want when we want it. It is all about me, myself, and I! It is so easy to fix our gaze on ourselves. On our circumstances. On what we have. On what we don’t have.

I do it all the time. I’m guessing you do too. It is in our nature. Our sinful nature.

“Our fall was, has always been, and always will be that we aren’t satisfied in God and what He gives.”

That is our fall. We are not satisfied in what we have. We always want more. However, this kind of life can lead to nothing but deeper feelings of lacking and discontent.

In One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp challenges us to change our focus. Shift our focus away from ourselves and our circumstances and instead on God.

“We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace. Thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience; thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole, fullest life.”

How do we live fully for Him? Live this life with thanksgiving. When discontent is on rise and complaints abound, what makes us as Christians different? Are we content? Or are we discontent like the world, always wanting more?

“That habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pin of gratitude. I hammer”

How would your life be different if you looked, intentionally every day, for the good things around you and accepted them as gifts from God?

I have started hammering. I have started counting. And, guess what I noticed? I’m different. I see Him more! Oh how glorious to see the One who loves me showing me daily through these small, but meaningful, gifts.

We are so blessed. If we look around, we will see Him everywhere! He is in the sunshine, the flowers, the cookie dough blizzard, the kiss from my husband, the bench that gives rest in the park!

“When I realize that it is not God who is in my debt but I who am in His great debt, then doesn’t all become gift?”

Oh, God has done so much for me, and for you! So many great things. How can I not praise Him for His greatness in my life? How can I not proclaim His goodness to the world? How can I not say thank you? How can I not count the gifts he showers over me as a testimony of His faithfulness?

Now, of course it is easy to give thanks when all is going well. But, what about the hard times? Even in the hard times…God is there!

“How do you count on life when the hopes don’t add up…The hopes don’t have to add up. The blessings do…Count blessings and discover Who can be counted on.”

I have been struggling. I have been sharing pieces of that with you. It was so easy to look at myself and wallow in self-pity. I did it, for a while.

But, Ann, through her story, helped me to realize that in all things, good and bad, easy and difficult, there are gifts to be found.

It isn’t easy at first. But, once you starting looking, you will find Him! He never leaves you! He is with you right now, showering you with gifts…do you see them?

Want to know what made this book even more impacting? Watching the videos with Bloom (in)courage!

All quotes above are from the book, One Thousand Gifts.