Gratitude....how it is changing my life!

I've never considered myself an ungrateful person...but I have learned in the last two years that I have been an "unaware" person.  Unaware...or perhaps unseeing....unrecognizing, in the busyness of life, of all the wonderful things that Yahweh has bestowed.  Oh, I saw the really big things...but how many gifts came my way without my seeing them as gifts?

Our days are so full and so hurried that we seem to race through with our eyes wide shut.  About three years ago my friend Julie asked me if I read Ann.  Ann?  She sent me to Holy Experience.....and it changed my life.

My life, at the time, was falling apart.  Julie has been my accountability partner for many years but most especially for the last three.  I don't think I was a whiner (you'll have to ask her yourself!) and I think I was able to walk in His joy for the most part...but my heart was heavy....and life looked bleak.  I knew I might possibly end up being a single Mom (who me?).....something that had never crossed my mind....and I was completely in shock and immersed in grief.

So...at Julie's suggestion I ventured over to Ann's place.  Oh.my.goodness.  I believe Ann is a modern-day David.  Her writing is so obviously touched by our Father.  She inspires, encourages, admonishes and reminds....daily!  If I could read only one blog a day it would be hers.  It is a devotional in itself...it is honest and real...she bares her soul as only a truly courageous and humble person can.

If I were to win a paid vacation to anywhere in the world, I would not pick Maui, Paris, Rome or the Islands....I would want to spend a week with Ann.  Not to be entertained or treated as a guest but to wash dishes, hang out laundry, hug towheads and walk farm paths together as we shared about our Father.  Not because I think Ann is perfect, or never yells at her kidletts, or has grumpy days...but because she admits she does....and she still sees the Father's hands and hears Him amidst it all.  She has learned to be grateful.  She has helped me to learn to be grateful....even for the messes......and in my life there are lots of messes.

In many ways, this lesson has helped me to walk in joy, no matter how difficult things were these last three years...and boy were they ever difficult....because I began to see with different eyes!  To see Him in the small things....not just the big things.  And once I began to get the hang of it, I saw Him everywhere!

So often in modern churches it seems that people are working hard to "bring the presence of the Lord" to their meeting.  This isn't necessary.

Matthew 18:20
"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

I think instead we need to awaken to His presence.  He is here...all around us, all the time.  But our eyes are dim.

What I learned from Ann was to begin to express gratitude and to glorify Him for the things I did see.  And in so doing, I found that my Father was showering gifts and blessings down on me daily....I just wasn't seeing them as gifts and blessings.  But I learned.  And the more I recognized it, the more I saw! And the more I glorified Him, the closer I seemed to get to Him, the easier it was to hear Him and, I found, the more naturally I fell to talking to Him...all throughout my day.

I will forever be grateful to Ann.  Although I most likely will never make it to her patch of Canadian dirt, or she to my Tennessee farm, I know that we will spend eternity together in the presence of our Father worshiping Him.  I look forward to sharing that with Ann.

I am joining her gratitude community and I invite you to do the same on your blogs....or in your daily lives.  I kept a Journal of Thanksgiving but I wanted to begin to do so here in the hopes that it might encourage one of you as much as it has encouraged me.  The goal is to recognize His gifts and glorify Him with your gratitude.  There is no time line, no requirements...but I guarantee this....it will change your life, your outlook and your walk with Him.

And so, I begin my list of 1,000 His Endless gifts.

1. My boys turning into men:

2. Family



3.My four sons...together



4.  Brotherly love



5. Our farm



6. A far friend moved close



"No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."   George MacDonald

Blessings,