December 5, 2012: One Thousand Gifts!

3 gifts silver:

• silver wrapped chocolates, a treat from a friend
• the silver beaters on my mixer, whipping up butter and sugar for a new cake recipe
• a sweet and funny email from a silver friend  (from the song..."Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold"--one of the only things I remember from my brief stint in the Girl Scouts)

These 3 gifts are number 1000-1003.  All thanks and praise to God for the grace to keep counting for the past 334 days!  There have been many days when I didn't feel very thankful, but Ann Voskamp taught me, and the Holy Spirit kept convicting me that gratitude is a discipline.  That I must unclench my fists in order to receive His joy.  

I am still seeking and fail again and again, but I pray that God has been glorified through my list.  The dare to name 1000 gifts has been, to quote Ann, "God's necessary tool to reshape me, remake me, rename me." (One Thousand Gifts). I have seen that He is good even in the hard eucharisteos, the thanks I dread.  

And so I keep naming, counting on past 1000 because it has made me a more joyful person, and that is grace.  To Him be all glory and honor, both now and forevermore.  Amen. 2 Peter 3:18