Monday, January 30, 2012

Multitude Monday, Take 234

I hit ten thousand gifts this past week. 10,000. Have you ever counted ANYTHING that high?

I've been blogging a weekly thankful-list for several years (it was Thankful Thursday back in the day), but I never actually counted until much later. Inspired by Ann Voskamp, I began a visual homemaking journal in July 2009, and that became the home for my ongoing list of gifts (I pick a few highlights from there to post on the blog each week--which is why I'm only at 2600 here). At some point, I read Ann's rationale for actually *counting*, rather than just listing, and so I went back (anal-retentive as I am) and numbered them all from the beginning of that first journal. The numbers climbed, slowly at first and then piling up more and more each day (giving thanks is addictive, the best kind of habit-forming). After just two and a half years, I hit 10,000.

Kind of puts life in perspective. Ten thousand gifts from the generous hand of my Father. Ten times ten times ten good things He has put in my life over the last two and a half years--vastly more than that, for sure, but these are just the ones I wrote down. Can I doubt that He loves me, that He cares, that He is for me, that the lines around this life of mine have fallen (no matter how much I'm tempted to believe differently) in pleasant places?

And yet--even in the face of this reality--I still do doubt. I still do chafe against the boundary lines. So I keep counting. I keep forcing myself to stop and look and give thanks, in the hopes that when I do, I will be better equipped to choose hallelujah. Praising helps me see, and seeing helps me praise.

"Gratitude is a lifestyle. A hard-fought, grace-infused, biblical lifestyle. And though there's a sense in which anyone can be thankful--for God has extended His common grace to all--the true glory and the transforming power of gratitude are reserved for those who know and acknowledge the Giver of every good gift and who are recipients of His redeeming grace."
--Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Gratitude

Thanking God this week for...

2634. babysitter reading dozens and dozens of books to my boys
2635. email inbox cleaned out
2636. Jude jabbering and giggling at bedtime, Elijah shushing him
2637. hard but really good conversations
2638. Jude's hair in a soapy mohawk

2639. dinner with our dear friends on Wednesday nights
2640. our turn to be family of the week on our church's prayer list
2641. the joy of keeping track of His gifts
2642. a trip to Adventure Science Center with some of our favorite people
2643. their coming to stay with us all weekend

2644. a house full of friends and laughter and conversation
2645. new and old board games
2646. Steve getting beaten by a seven-year-old at a strategy game :)
2647. vivid reminders that this season of parenting won't last forever
2648. lunch out with Diane while the guys watched the kids

2649. the fact that my apparent food poisoning was short-lived
2650. Steve babying me when I am sick
2651. Grandma June's old rocking chair in the boys' room
2652. the ability to breathe through my nose
2653. Steve praying for me

2654. hearing my cries and answering me
2655. being slow to anger
2656. being full of compassion and mercy
2657. Steve preaching the gospel to me


4 comments:

Danielle said...

Congratulations! I should go back and number my journal. I usually journal my thankfulness but didn't start numbering either and only number online, so I know I have more than I've counted. I too, only choose a sampling from the week.

I've had a hard time consistently posting on Mondays. Because Monday afternoons are my grocery list/menu planning days, not available for blogging. :) I'd have !to be ahead of the game and do it on Sundays. Oh well!

Amy said...

oh, to have a meal planning/grocery list day - I bet my life would be a lot more organized and a lot less stressful! instead I put "meal plan" on my to-do list several days in a row, and sit here and blog instead :P

Anonymous said...

Just curious...are YOU Ann's #3103 today? Hope so. How fun! Love you!
Diane

Amy said...

haha, yep :) I had to shoot her an email on Thursday when I hit 10,000 - hadn't heard back from her but then grinned when I read her post today!