Quotes from 1000 Gifts

I was recently reading the book 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp but it took me a long time to read it because of school work and everything else. It was good, granted, read it with discretion. I will tell you that it
made me think about the things I see and experience everyday that I am so thankful for. I've started a list, I'm still so busy and with going back and forth staying at work I don't write in it everyday. But most days I see things and think of how thankful I am for it. I'm a simple person. Those who know me know that. I love the outdoors, the lightning bugs, the flower petals floating on the breeze, the breeze coming in the window that tousles my curly hair.
Needless to say I wanted to post some of the interesting parts of the book that I really enjoyed.

"The low heavens outside the paned windows fill with more snowflakes than start, no two stacked crystals the same; the trees in the wood draw in collective green breath to the still of January hibernation, and God in the world will birth ice from His womb, frost of heaven, bind the chains of the Pleiades, loose the cords of Orion, and number again the strands on my head.
Isn't it here? The wonder? Why do i spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it? Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize granduer? The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here. Who has time or eyes to notice?

All my eyes can seem to fixate on are the splatter of disappointment across here and me."
(P.31)

" I am a child again and tonight I have run to the end of the horizon and this time I have touched Him and I twirl in full apron skirt, spinning hem brushing the grass heads bowed and I laugh joy. It's dawning, my full moon rising: I was lost but know I am found again, Jesus, and I know what I want: to see deeply, to thank deeply, to feel joy deeply. How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. if my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in his presence is fullness of joy- and seeing shows the way in.

The art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible. And it is the art of gratitude
that makes joy possible.Isn't joy the art of God?"
(P.118)

"Does he (her son) see me doing the hard eucharisto, counting the ugly as grace, transfiguring the ugly into beauty with thanks? Does he see?"

"The discipline of thanks only comes with practice"

"The practice of giving thanks...eucharisto... this is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don't have to change what we see. only the way we see."

(P.135)

"Overwhelming grace drew me to the Christ full of glory that I might empty of the self. I empty to become full. Full of grace...to fully live."

"I began to see that nothing I am counts for anything, but all that I count of Him counts for everything- seeing eyes might illuminate the glory of Christ in all. I am all eye, seeing through life as glass to God."

(P.209)

"Out the kitchen window the sky rolls out. Apple blossoms fill all the orchard. The morning dove warms her bluing hope. I can hear Him, what He is telling the whole world and even me here: this is for you. The lover's smile in the morning, the child's laughter down the slide, the elder's eyes at eventide: this is for you. And the earth under your feet, the rain over your face upturned, the stars spinning all round you in the brazen glory: this is for you, you, you. These are for you - gifts- these are for you -grace- these are for you- God, so count the ways he loves, a thousand, more, never stop, that when you wake in the morning you can't help turn humbly to the east, unfold your hand to the heavens, and though you tremble and though you wonder, though the world is ugly, it is beautiful, and you can slow and you can trust and you can receive each moment as grace. Eucharisto."

(P. 224)

It was a good book and I would consider reading again, maybe with less distraction next time. I will put a disclaimer in that the style of writing is very different and hard to get used to at the beginning of the book.

Life Lessons Learned on the Way to Marriage

Recently I started getting an e-magazine called Ladies in Waiting by a single girl named Sarah Ann. I don't agree with everything that is said, and they do use the wrong Bible version sometimes. When you sign up as a member you have access to all the older magazine where there is a vast array of information in these articles. I only got them to read for a while but the magazine is made up of articles submitted by girls around the world. The one topic interested me, Content in the Here and Now. So I wrote an article for it. I really enjoyed doing it and the next magazine I wanted to write for, as it had to do with missions, but I was too busy with schoolwork.

I was very surprised by the topic for the upcoming issue of Ladies in Waiting,Preparing for Marriage and Keeping Pure, because I am in this stage of life.I've been wanting to post some of these lessons I've learned so I decided to post it in incriments like I wrote it for the magazine.

I am engaged to be married to the most wonderful godly man that could have been created to complete me. Less than four months remain until the wedding, and I am also graduating from Bible college in less than 3 weeks, my life is busy and sometimes I rush about so much I have to learn things the hard way. There are things you never really thought about or could really fathom as a single lady, that all changes when God brings that special person into your life. Your life has a whole new focus, you want to be the best person you can be for that person and this is where one of the first lessons comes into play:

1. To be the best person for your future spouse, you must strive to be the best you can for God.
   If I am living my life as the woman God wants me to be than I will be the woman Matthew needs me to be. Rather than trying to live to please the people in my life I must strive to please God and all other’s needs will be fulfilled.