Thankfulness

This is one of those posts I've been meaning to get around to for a while.  Might get a little wordy and long, but stick with it, it might be good :)

  One of my friends and I have been going through the book One Thousand Gifts this summer, and WOW!!  I don't know if I've ever read a book where I've taken so much away from it.  Most of the time I just want to underline every sentence.  There's SO much goodness and wisdom in this book.  I have learned a great deal about being thankful, and how thankfulness is an essential part of my salvation.  In the very beginning Voskamp talks of Adam and Eve's sin of ungratefulness, that they just weren't grateful for all God had given them, leading them into Satan's trap.  This idea seems so simple, so easy to see, yet I have grown up in church and never really heard it put this way.  That my sin ultimately is caused by my ungratefulness.  Such a realization for me!


She talks of longing to live the life of "eucharisteo", which broken down in the greek means grace, thanksgiving, joy.  That this is how we should always be living.  She gives example after example from scripture that eucharisteo always comes before a miracle. Our salvation is a miracle.  So eloquently she says "our very saving is associated with our gratitude........We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives.  Thanksgiving is the manifestion of our Yes! to his grace."  I know this is a lot of her words for one post, but it is just so beautiful the way she puts it.  Here is more on this idea: "At the Eucharist, Christ breaks His heart to heal ours--Christ, the complete accomplishment of our salvation.  And the miracle of eucharisteo never ends: thanksgiving is what precedes the miracle of that salvation being fully worked out in our lives.  Thanksgiving--giving thanks in everything--is what prepares the way for salvation's whole restoration.  Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized in a life until the life realizes the need to give thanks. In everything." 

This is so, so good! The fulness of my salvation is being worked out according to my gratitude??  Why had I not heard this before?  Sure I am thankful for what God has blessed me with, thankful for this journey we are on to our sweet baby, but am I really thankful? Do I cry out to God daily, just thankful for all that He's given me?  Do I appreciate the little things in life?  The premise of the book is to figure out how to practically live a life of eucharisteo.  So Voskamp makes a list, of 1000 gifts that God has given her .  I've quoted this on here before, she is learning "how to be grateful and happy, whether hands full or hands empty."  When you think about it, what other way is there to live, really?  "I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life."  I for one am SO guilty of this.  Just going about each day, saying that I'm thankful, but what am I thankful for?  So I have started my own list, in an attempt to work all this out in my own life, to be thankful in every little moment I am given.  Because these are all the ways that God is telling me He loves me.  This is the way that I will fully experience the presence of God and bring Him glory with my life.  To recognize His gifts and truly be thankful for them. 

Sweet baby,
You are one of these precious gifts, and I am going to be thankful for every little thing on our journey to you.  I do not want to miss any of these moments, and I can only imagine how many moments there will be when you are finally here. We can't wait to experience them with you! 


If you don't read any other book this summer, you can not go wrong with this one.  Seriously, you won't regret it!! I have lots more to share, and I'm only half-way through the book.  More to come!