Gratitude

  It's a Saturday morning, I woke up just after 6, not able to sleep. So my family is asleep at home and here I sit in Starbucks, with my mocha. We don't have internet at home and the itch to write was itching me as I laid there in bed, trying to dream of sleeping in, only to realize I was squeezing my eyes shut, dreaming of writing some things I want to share with you this morning.

  I am so happy to be writing today. It has been awhile. I have had many moments I've been restless to write in these past couple of months, but I have not found words to process what is in my heart to say. Through conversations, e-mails, letters, journaling, in our weekly small group when we gather with some of our church family to share our lives, the work God is doing in us, opening the Word together, these are the places God has seen fit for me to "process" lately, and I love it. It has caused me to absorb, savor, think deeply on all God is speaking to me through his Word, and I am so grateful. It makes me think of Mary in Luke 2:19, "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." I want that quietness in my own heart.

  Yet, I am also so grateful for the times that I want to write and process this way, and I can, and I do!

  I have a friend who inspires me not only to write, because she is an incredibly gifted writer, but more specifically, to write down evidences of God's grace in my daily life. She was inspired by Ann Voskamp (author of One Thousand Gifts) to begin her own list of Gratitude to God.

  I came across my own list that I began in a journal last March. My listing fizzled out sometime in June of last year, but I am now so very glad that I began it. Reading over it when I found it recently has moved me to start afresh. I plan to record what I have so far from last year here, and pick up where I left off. It opens my eyes to see the Gospel alive and working and being applied to my heart and my life, and in the lives of those around me. I hope that as I write here, I can go further in my writing, listing not only my gratitude to God, but finding words to speak of the Gospel and how it is transforming me, how it can transform you, bearing fruit that will last, to the glory of God, in whatever circumstances. I pray that God allows me to do this. I ask Him for words to do this, for His glory.

  I have been prompted and encouraged by loved ones to write/record the goings-on of my little ones, while they are still little. I have been so grateful for this encouragement, it gives me a sense of urgency to gather up what I can before any more time passes. I've needed the creative outlet too, and this is perfect for that.

  So instead of squandering these precious moments as mere Facebook statuses :), I will treasure them here whenever possible. I've gathered some of the moments I've shared in Facebook, and I plan to keep them here too.

  "Why spend time writing all this out?" I've asked myself, and you may be wondering. It is my way of holding myself to something, making a commitment. Now that I've purposed to "store" these treasures here, it means that much more to me to write anything here at all, and for more than a creative outlet. This will be a place that I am being still to take time to articulate God's beauty in my world and my praise to Him for His presence gracing it in the big and small. So when I am not writing, I will be looking with eyes wide open for God's gifts of grace evident all around me, every day. Stepping back in gratitude to God, acknowledging Him in all things (Proverbs 3:5,6; Colossians 1:16,17).

  Being still, growing in the knowledge of Him.

  ...I want that quietness in my heart... I am asking God to cultivate it.




Gratitude to God for His gifts:


March 10, 2011


1. The smell and sound of the coffee pot brewing

2. Scribbled pictures everywhere, made by chubby toddler hands

3. Brooklynn adoring a new picture on the refridgerator

4. Solomon perched on the kitchen counter, happy, nothing else having worked to satisfy him

5. Solomon pointing out our loved ones pictures on the fridge

6. The kids getting blankets and towels out on the first hot day of the year and laying on them on the grass

7. Michaela singing to herself eating pretzels, curled up like a cat on her towel

8. Michaela still humming, under the towel now, rolling around lazily in the grass

9. Brooklynn busy passing out toys to her brothers as they lay in the sun

10. The boys laying under thermal winter blankets in the heat of the sun

11. Brooklynn shaking her pigtails about, loving how they fall about her shoulders

12. The warmth of the sunlight on my skin

13. Enjoying good health and beautiful weather after a winter of flus and chest colds, spending long days inside


Much more thanks to come...