"Praise is what we are made for!" Ann Voskamp says, and thus began her practice of purposefully taking note of what God is doing and has done around her, counting blessings and worshiping each step. This was the humble birthplace of the "Gratitude Community."
I remember sitting as a brand new young wife in my gracious landlady's living room, a place of warmth and welcome and wisdom. She would share with me stories of her life on quiet afternoons, and I would walk away toward the mother-in-law quarters where we were "playing house" that first summer, with gleaned understanding and a desire to be warm and welcoming and sharing of wisdom, too. One such afternoon she shared with me a line of a song that had stuck with her for years and years, and now it has taken its place in the "forever" part of my feeble mind: "Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings; see what the Lord has done." (Song and story behind it can be found here).
...and so, that is what I plan to do. Draw nearer to my Lord simply by noticing. Noticing His grace, His goodness, and the multitude of ways He gently, mightily, faithfully works and gives.
Let the counting begin.
1. The body of Christ.
2. A purse that, 11 years ago, accompanied me to prom, and now has found new life in sweet toddler hands, storing treasures such as tennis balls and beautiful blue gypsy-bead necklaces (of the dollar store's hot new line).
3. Sweet toddler hands, reverently pulling afore-mentioned treasures from above-mentioned purse to display for anyone who may happen by.
4. Joyful tidings from childhood friends
5. Reasons to pray
6. Psalm 91
7. Spontaneous project with my dad, accompanied by cherished recollections of a multitude of projects with my dad.
