I started reading this book back in February called "One Thousand Gifts". I haven't been able to sit down and read through the whole thing non-stop due to a few reasons. 1. I have been beyond crazy busy with school and 2. The stuff she's writing about is deep and takes some time to really think and chew on, so you can't just read straight through it. You can actually barely read through a paragraph without stopping and really thinking about what she has written.
The main purpose of the book is that she has challenged herself to start thanking God more. By doing so she has decided to make a list of a thousand things she is thankful for. Through out this journey she talks about the change of mindset, growth, and healing she has found through this challenge.
I find it kinda ironic (but at the same time, not really), that praise and thanksgiving have been a common theme that keeps reappearing in different ways in my life. It says in Isaiah 28:10, " He tells us everything over and over- one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!" (NLT). I really love that he does this! He knows how ADD I am and how distracted I get, so he repeats things to me, through different people, in different ways, to ensure that I get the point!
So giving thanks has been my message and I've decide to take on this new challenge of giving thanks, even the littlest things, everyday. Yesterday, I took this picture of an old mill in Cleveland. I've passed this building from a distance every time I've driven to Cleveland for class the past 3 years. And every time I see it, it makes me smile. There just something about this old broken building that fills my heart with joy. It's the little moments like this that I'm wanting to become more thankful for. Yesterday, I finally decided to stop and take a picture of this old building and just take in the moment of the joy I feel when I see it. Later, I decided to thank God for this moment, for this time in my day when I could cherish something so imperfect. It's amazing how different I felt after pausing to give thanks for this.
After the small experience I had with giving thanks yesterday, today I started giving thanks for the little things. I found myself having more energy today and found myself not complaining in my head as much (I complain alot in my head some days, I just don't always verbalize it). One of the moments today that I gave thanks for was when I saw the students at my internship perform in a play. It was a play called 101 Dalmatians. It was the CUTEST thing I have seen in a long time. The play was super cute but my absolute favorite part was after the play, when I went back into the chorus room and I saw all the kids jumping around, smiling, and hugging each other, because they were so PROUD of what they had just accomplished. Many came running up to me hugging and grinning. It was the most precious moment I have witnessed in a long time. These students had put so much time and effort into this play and they were just radiating with joy afterwards! It filled my heart with so much joy to see their joy! As I write this I can't help but think how easy it is to lose this joy. The older we get, the more of a perfectionist we become that we forget to celebrate the small accomplishments. The play had a few technical difficulties and wasn't exactly as they had rehearsed but they still saw and knew the worth of what they had accomplished. It's so easy to lose value in what we do and what we accomplish the older we get. Different things happen along the way that can cause this but I'm challenged to keep this form of innocents, this idea that we can celebrate, love, and be joyful in the little moments. Kids have a strong sense of thankfulness and this thankfulness fuels many of the things we desire in this life.
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