If you've heard me say it once you've heard me say it forty times: #1000gifts.
Take the joy dare.
Slow down to see the miracles. Because there's a little something special in every day.
I've written my three things sporadically over the past eight months, started on my birthday. At first I wrote them faithfully, but then I didn't do it as often. But I do it. Every month is new I start up again. :)
Here is a spattering of my #1000gifts
1. Life
2. Birthdays
3. Health
4. Pumpkin Lattes
5. Cake
6. Rain
7. End of Summer
8. Dishes
9. Laundry
10. Ezra 4
100. Fire
101. Burning Desire
102. Burned Dinner
103. Burning Bush
104. Sun
105. Muscles
106. Shared
107. Saved
108. Surrendered
109. Sweet Sweat
110. Leave It On The Pavement
I stopped counting in my journal and began on Instagram. I really need to go back to the journal....
Three Things Hard:
Trust
Submission
Acceptance
Three Things Rising Up:
1. The sun with new mercy
2. The sun with new mercy
3. The sun with new mercy
Three gifts Stacked, Stashed, Stilled:
1. Dishes put away by the teenager
2. Chocolate
3. Quiet house in the morning... to go with my coffee
It's hard for me be to grateful, it really is. Isn't that the jest of the garden.... of original sin..... ingratitude. I'm ungrateful, for the smallest things... for the people around me who I love and adore (but they get on my nerves), the fridge full of food (yet I can't find anything to eat), the music blasting on my stereo (and with Sirius XM, there's nothing good to listen to).
Todays Prompt Is: Three Gifts In The Dark
1. Sleep. Must.Have.More! Yet grateful for good night's sleep!
2. RRC Track Workout. I get up at 4AM to run in the dark on Tuesday. I'm grateful for my running club that offers this kind of workout for my very low membership fee!
3. Stars. You can't see stars unless it's dark. There's beauty in that, both when you're looking and the stars and when it's dark in your life. Look to the Morning Star!
I've got to get better: In counting my blessings. (and I don't mean stuff)In getting to 1000 gifts. In slowing down to see the miracle. So many things can go wrong in the course of a day, a week, a month... a life.... So many things that really in the scheme of things don't really matter. What I was upset about last month, who can remember? What about last year at this time? Who knows?
It's time to slow down to see the miracle, choose joy, pass joy onto others, teach our children to live with gratitude, not entitlement. It starts with us. It starts with me, the ungrateful.
Showing posts with label One Thousand Gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One Thousand Gifts. Show all posts
Friday, May 9, 2014
Monday, December 30, 2013
The One Where I Choose A Word
2017 One Word Update here. HOPE.
So it's one of those mornings where I have a stretch of silence. I catch up on some reading. I check Facebook to find a number of new posts. Blogs I follow.
Ann Voscamp is one such blog. I don't know where I've been that I didn't hear about her until this summer. But I found her! And her words speak to the soul of me, in ways that I've needed to hear (I think) all my life. She's the girlfriend, she's the Titus 2 womanyou I have hoped for, and I don't even know her. Heaven awaits the day I do!
Her Blog today is: How To Move Forward Into A New Year when you feel like you failed last year
"What if everyone is making New Years Resolution and you just want New You Solutions" "Sometimes you can hardly trust your legs, trust turning and taking the next step" "Falling Apart? Fall into What.Ever.Comes.Next FORWARD!" "Fearful? Forward!"
And in that blog is this one, well several links, but his is the one I read: Fear's the first step of faith
"The things in my life that require faith are the things that terrify me"
"Fear offers two routes: Flee or Faith. High tail-it or Trust"
I go back to the first post and read her "footnotes" below which leads me to this blog: What the New Year Needs Most A Blog about naming your year. A name for your year. Interesting. I haven't heard of this concept. I read on. She talks about euchristeo and names her new year koinonia. Greek words. I love greek words. How they get right to the heart of the matter. No need to wonder if it's there, they're or their. Nope. The greek is straightforward. This word means this and (generally) only this and in the event it means something else, the root word for that something else is clear and certain.
I flip back to Facebook. More posts. More blogs. Sarah Bessey (another writer/blogger I found through blog hopping) posts something interesting. Something I hadn't seen before. SheLovesMagazine. Wow, what a great organization! What a wonderful community!! Wow! I kept reading and reading and reading. Wow! And come to yet another One Word blog.
The part that resounded with me is "the underlying message (of making resolutions) seems to be who I am right now isn't making the cut"
A to-do list of life for the next year. And sure we all want to lose weight, be intentional, save money, say no, recycle, unplug, eat healthier, save the world….the truth of the matter is we make the lists to feel better, to be enough. Stop with the lists!
And that brings me to this OneWord365
I read through the suggested list:
Imagine, Different, Push, Celebrate, Believe, Thrive, Relentless, Finish, Transformation, Learn, Reduce, Grace, Today, Confidence, Health, Purpose, Unstoppable, Enjoy, Truth, Generous, Soar, Commit, Forward, Awake, Change, Focus, Invest, Peace, No, Fortitude, Empower, Curious, Direction, Opportunity, Embrace, Present, Ambition, Growth, Connect, Perspective, Persistence, Stewardship, Strength, Action, Adapt, Progress, Adventure, Selah, Mindfulness, Appreciate, Create, Optimism, Breathe, Integrity, Uplift, Simplify, Freedom, New, Rebuilding, Joy, Courage, Momentum, Trust, Reflection, Possibility, Sacrifice, Relax, Organize, Pause, Be, Listen, Ignite, Determined, Balance, Silence, Release, Faith, Resolve, Together, Dare, Revel, Love, Minimize, Discover, Choose, Diligence, Brave, Risk, Open, Transition, Slow, More, Shine, Live, Write, Battle.
All of these words are good. Good words. I like several of them. I should pick several of them. I'm tempted to pick one per month! But that's not the point of the exercise. I need to focus. Draw down. Narrow my thoughts down to one that frightens me a bit. I do many of these words. Am many of these words. What's the word that I'm not? That doesn't come easily?
Trust. The passage that comes to mind is Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your path.
The Hebrew word is Batach, a verb, To Trust.
To Trust In
To have confidence
To be bold
To be secure
The Greek word is Elpizo, a verb, to hope.
To wait for salvation with joy and confidence.
Root Word: Elpis
Expectation of good, of hope
Joyful and confident expectation of salvation
The author of hope, of He who is it's foundation
A thing hoped for
Noah Webster defines it as:
Confidence, a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person.
You can find Noah's Dictionary here.
All definitions lead to Confidence.
Interesting…. Confidence in Hebrew: Batach
Greek: Peitho verb To Persuade
To be persuaded.
To believe
To listen to, to obey, to yield to, to comply with
TRUST
To trust in The Lord and lean not (support oneself)
To trust in myself, build on my strengths, learn from my weakness.
To trust in my relationships, believe the best in others.
To trust the journey, the road will rise up to meet me
To NOT trust in performance, perfection, perspectives, primes or prizes.
To NOT trust in ability, acceptance, attitudes, alternatives or achievement.
But to spend 2014 trusting, trusted, learning to trust, being a trustee. It's scary, but as Ann said Fear is the First Step of Faith. Let me be found being faithful. Amen!
So it's one of those mornings where I have a stretch of silence. I catch up on some reading. I check Facebook to find a number of new posts. Blogs I follow.
Ann Voscamp is one such blog. I don't know where I've been that I didn't hear about her until this summer. But I found her! And her words speak to the soul of me, in ways that I've needed to hear (I think) all my life. She's the girlfriend, she's the Titus 2 woman
Her Blog today is: How To Move Forward Into A New Year when you feel like you failed last year
"What if everyone is making New Years Resolution and you just want New You Solutions" "Sometimes you can hardly trust your legs, trust turning and taking the next step" "Falling Apart? Fall into What.Ever.Comes.Next FORWARD!" "Fearful? Forward!"
And in that blog is this one, well several links, but his is the one I read: Fear's the first step of faith
"The things in my life that require faith are the things that terrify me"
"Fear offers two routes: Flee or Faith. High tail-it or Trust"
I go back to the first post and read her "footnotes" below which leads me to this blog: What the New Year Needs Most A Blog about naming your year. A name for your year. Interesting. I haven't heard of this concept. I read on. She talks about euchristeo and names her new year koinonia. Greek words. I love greek words. How they get right to the heart of the matter. No need to wonder if it's there, they're or their. Nope. The greek is straightforward. This word means this and (generally) only this and in the event it means something else, the root word for that something else is clear and certain.
I flip back to Facebook. More posts. More blogs. Sarah Bessey (another writer/blogger I found through blog hopping) posts something interesting. Something I hadn't seen before. SheLovesMagazine. Wow, what a great organization! What a wonderful community!! Wow! I kept reading and reading and reading. Wow! And come to yet another One Word blog.
The part that resounded with me is "the underlying message (of making resolutions) seems to be who I am right now isn't making the cut"
A to-do list of life for the next year. And sure we all want to lose weight, be intentional, save money, say no, recycle, unplug, eat healthier, save the world….the truth of the matter is we make the lists to feel better, to be enough. Stop with the lists!
And that brings me to this OneWord365
I read through the suggested list:
Imagine, Different, Push, Celebrate, Believe, Thrive, Relentless, Finish, Transformation, Learn, Reduce, Grace, Today, Confidence, Health, Purpose, Unstoppable, Enjoy, Truth, Generous, Soar, Commit, Forward, Awake, Change, Focus, Invest, Peace, No, Fortitude, Empower, Curious, Direction, Opportunity, Embrace, Present, Ambition, Growth, Connect, Perspective, Persistence, Stewardship, Strength, Action, Adapt, Progress, Adventure, Selah, Mindfulness, Appreciate, Create, Optimism, Breathe, Integrity, Uplift, Simplify, Freedom, New, Rebuilding, Joy, Courage, Momentum, Trust, Reflection, Possibility, Sacrifice, Relax, Organize, Pause, Be, Listen, Ignite, Determined, Balance, Silence, Release, Faith, Resolve, Together, Dare, Revel, Love, Minimize, Discover, Choose, Diligence, Brave, Risk, Open, Transition, Slow, More, Shine, Live, Write, Battle.
All of these words are good. Good words. I like several of them. I should pick several of them. I'm tempted to pick one per month! But that's not the point of the exercise. I need to focus. Draw down. Narrow my thoughts down to one that frightens me a bit. I do many of these words. Am many of these words. What's the word that I'm not? That doesn't come easily?
Trust. The passage that comes to mind is Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your path.
The Hebrew word is Batach, a verb, To Trust.
To Trust In
To have confidence
To be bold
To be secure
The Greek word is Elpizo, a verb, to hope.
To wait for salvation with joy and confidence.
Root Word: Elpis
Expectation of good, of hope
Joyful and confident expectation of salvation
The author of hope, of He who is it's foundation
A thing hoped for
Noah Webster defines it as:
Confidence, a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person.
You can find Noah's Dictionary here.
All definitions lead to Confidence.
Interesting…. Confidence in Hebrew: Batach
Greek: Peitho verb To Persuade
To be persuaded.
To believe
To listen to, to obey, to yield to, to comply with
TRUST
To trust in The Lord and lean not (support oneself)
To trust in myself, build on my strengths, learn from my weakness.
To trust in my relationships, believe the best in others.
To trust the journey, the road will rise up to meet me
To NOT trust in performance, perfection, perspectives, primes or prizes.
To NOT trust in ability, acceptance, attitudes, alternatives or achievement.
But to spend 2014 trusting, trusted, learning to trust, being a trustee. It's scary, but as Ann said Fear is the First Step of Faith. Let me be found being faithful. Amen!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The One Where I Follow Along
So me and my fellow bloggers have spent the past 25 days being thankful. And it will continue for 5 more days. For me it's not the random, thankfulness. My family, my friends, my belongings. I don't know where I've been that I just heard of Ann Voskamp this year and her amazing book One Thousand Gifts, but it happened.
I thought, yea I'd like to read this book. It looked good. It's not fiction and well y'all know that I'm not like my other blogging girls, I don't read much. I'm not in a book club, oh my, the thought of a book club makes me stressed out. Reading with a time limit.... I seriously might be breaking out in hives right.now!
Anyway, I found her blog from another blog, and saw her book and then read some reviews. Because I'm not an avid reader. I'm excited to say I've read two books this year! So I read the reviews to, ya know, sway me from reading her book. But I saw her book at HPB one day and got all giddy I set out to read it. Eeeeek... 5 more days of November left and I'm not finish and she has another book out that I want to read in December!
Anyway, it's a great book about living in the moment. Right now. What can you find to be grateful for, where you are in the mundane. In Dinner and Dishes and Diapers. In the hard, In things seen out your window, In things Sweet, Salty and Sipped, In things Handmade, Held and Happy, In things Silent, In things Golden, In Things Ugly, In things Beautiful, In All Things....
I Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice Always
Pray Without Ceasing
Give Thanks In All Circumstances
This is about Blogs I Follow, aside from fitness/running blogs. Since this month is about Thankfulness. I want to take this time to give thanks for these ladies who I don't know in person, feel like I've known my whole life. Laugh with, Cry with. If I'm honest, Laugh at, Envy just a tad, they write beautifully, witty, inspiring, they write the words that are in my head!
I have a board on Pinterst called Following....Blogs Worth Reading.
I have these ladies:
Jen Hatmaker I "met" through my Triple S Blogger Sarah. She posted a link on Facebook, I read it and fell in love with her! Her openness, her hilarity, her spiciness.
I don't remember which blog exactly Sarah posted that I latched onto, but I liked her on Facebook and well, I've enjoyed the journey ever since.
This blog is where I found Ann VosKamp. And had to find out what she meant by "what would Ann VosKamp do"?
She and Ann are part of a thing coming up in February that I'm soooo excited for called:
The IF Gathering If God is real, then what?
If you're read here a while and if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I'm on Instagram. Probably more than the other two mediums. That's how I found Amanda. I'm not sure exactly how I found She Reads Truth. I think I was looking for a devotional to read and looked up under the New tab on YouVersion and saw She Reads Truth. Maybe I saw something on Instagram. I dunno. It's been nearly a year. January 2013 I did my first SRT Study. Wow. Everyone is so... So Good. Speaks right to the heart of the matter. It's like sitting down with a girlfriend.
Anyway, on Instagram in September I started seeing all these #31days hashtags and talk of blogs and this exciting buzz about blogging about 1 topic for 31 days. I'm sure I've always known Amanda has a blog. I mean really in this day and age, doesn't everyone have a blog. I mean I have two! Really more than that but I'm trying to consolidate my blogs into one ....er.... two places. Not all my topics are running worthy and I have another blog for that.... those thoughts or craziness!
Amanda posted her blog and I fell into a must.have.more! Wish.she.was.my.neighbor! We.would.drink.lots.of.coffee! Kind of thing. Love her blog. She seriously hits it. And it's really just her life, but I feel like I'm living it with her. I'll be honest, I didn't at first think I'd have much in common with her (she has small people, twins infact. I have teenagers, well that's the main difference, we're in difference seasons), except SheReadsTruth (duh?! how did I just figure out she's a writer at SRT) and coffee. Oh but isn't that enough! Yes, yes it is!
Her topic was 31 Secrets Moms Keep, hmmmm, sounded good. Some of her posts were funny, Some where insightful, Most were down to the bones honest.
Posts like:
There you have it.... my thankful Pin Up! I'm thankful for these ladies, who speak truth, help me laugh, feel normal that I'm oh so not normal and encourage me to keep on the journey. Life like running is a journey. There are easy days, hard days, days of sprints, long days, days you don't want to repeat, days you wish would go on forever!
It's in the journey you figure out who are you, what you're pace is, where you need to be challenged, and what techniques don't work for you.
Enjoy The Journey.
Count Your Blessings, They are gifts.
It's No Secret, Motherhood is Hard.
Find Your Spicy, Don't Look Back (or at the Sweet)
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