Counting Blessings


"We give thanks not because of how we feel...but
because of Who He is..."
-Ann Voskamp


This is a week of thanksgiving, in word, in deed, in practice.

A week where we pause and count our blessings, give our thanks.

A week to remember...

strength

growth

sorrows

laughter

upheaval 

peace

joy

There is gratitude in the remembrance; allowing ourselves to visit the year with fresh eyes and an open heart, seeing what we may have missed in the hurried of the day.

Giving thanks in all things, because His purpose is present even in the shadows. They shape us, define us, allow us to find a strength within that could only come from Him. In the dark, we are hallowed out and space is shaped for Him to come in.  Our invitation, most often, is when we are in the dark places.

The thanksgiving? It is a response of gratitude. Of joy. It is an acknowledgement of the One who gives us all good things in His time.

His time.  Not ours.

This holiday we celebrate once a year?  This thankful we express on a Thursday in late November as the last leaves fall from the trees and family gathers 'round?  This heart response? It should be a regular guest at my table. Welcome. Invited. Cherished. Nurtured.

It's easy to pick apart the foul, the ugly, the insignificant. I'm challenging myself to continue to hold tight to the grateful. The thankful. The response He calls for and I long to give at the end of a long day, week, month, year...

I count the gifts every day. Every. Day.

I search out the beauty in the ordinary.  She may be hard to see, but she's always there, waiting to surprise me at the most unexpected of times.

I cherish.  Big time.

It's not easy.  It's a choice, this thanksgiving in the heart.  I make it because He loved me. First. Always. He created it all...

He created YOU.

I'm thankful.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you
were called in one body. And be thankful..."
-Col 3:15 ESV





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