My Continued Journey In Gratitude

My gratitude journal has been one of the best things I've committed to doing in a long time. I find that it not only takes the focus off of me and onto God, but it gives me joy. Counting gifts. One by one. It's bringing joy in a truly remarkable way!

It's about seeing the world in a different way. Choosing to see beauty through the lens instead of ugly. It's teaching me that there is lovely in the unlovely... beauty in the brokenness, JOY in this journey.

Ah - the diligence of counting gifts. It's about commitment. It's a discipline that is teaching me how to look more like Jesus. It's turning my failures into fruit. I make my way back home... to Him... where I belong.

As told my author Ann Voskamp, "It's not the gifts that fulfill, but the holiness of the space. The God in it... this is supreme gift, time, God Himself framed in a moment."

God made everything. Everything is His.
And since God is love, shouldn't everything we see... everything we touch be seen as such? LOVE. BEAUTY.

My journey to 1,000... my challenge to NAME ONE THOUSAND things I am thankful for... is swelling:

113.) Train rides
118.) Laughter shared between friends
123.) School supply shopping
128.) Women who love Jesus
142.) Fresh, ripe purple grapes
147.) The book of James
153.) Selflessness
167.) Dinner on the deck in late spring
188.) Lazy, rainy Sunday afternoons with the windows open
197.) Pot roast cooking in the crock pot
205.) The sovereignty of God
209.) The power of prayer
214.) Feeling protected and defended

Psalm 50:23 says, "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show Him the salvation of God." Thanksgiving is bringing honor to the Father and through that simple obedience of honoring God through acts of thankfulness we are allowing God to show us His fullest salvation in Christ.

The count to 1,000 continues. I press on daily to find the beauty in everyday living.

When it's hard to smile, when the pain is too unbearable, when the answer doesn't come, when forgiveness is not granted... stop. Count the blessings. See the miracles. They're there. We have to choose to see.

Mary Beth Chapman says it best in her book, Choosing To See (a story of the Chapman's journey of struggle and hope following the death of their young sweet daughter, Maria), "So God confirmed this truth yet again: I can choose to SEE His story, or I can miss it."

"When you SEE this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like the grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known." Isaiah 66:14 (ESV)

Let's not miss His story!

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,