Ten Things I Am Thankful For

A month ago, after Peter’s story hour at the library and as we were checking out our books, I asked the librarian if there was a copy of Ann Voskamp’s ‘One Thousand Gifts‘ available. I had read one of her quotes in the Magnificat earlier that week during Mass. Her words were so powerful that it had me looking up who she was and what she wrote. After the librarian told me that the book wasn’t available, and as I turned away from the counter, a woman came up to me and told me she had a copy to lend me and would bring it to me the next week. I was so grateful for this act of kindness, the gift of sharing.

This book is changing and healing my heart, in ways I didn’t even know it needed to be changed or healed. There are paragraphs that I re-read, sentences that make me weep, and messages that I keep returning to each day. The biggest thing the book is teaching me is how much I need to live in the present, and how gratitude, and a grateful heart, always precedes the miraculous. I have started counting the gifts, both the joys and the sorrows, and in doing so I have experienced freedom and peace.

A grateful heart is a free heart, and that is what I want, a free heart to love Christ. As I fully enter into the present moment, I thank God for the tiniest things. Stirring the soup for dinner, “thank you God.” Seeing Peter’s long eye lashes as I rock him to sleep, “thank you God.” The grocery list, the bathroom that needs to be cleaned, the unread e-mails that need a response, the sound of Mike’s car pulling in the driveway, “thank you God, thank you God.”

It’s been such a gift to read this book during the Advent season. It’s made me yearn for the coming of Christ, as I seek to find him in each moment throughout the day. During this final week before Christmas, as our hearts prepare to welcome Him, I want to share ten things I am grateful for. I would love to hear, have you read ‘One Thousand Gifts’? What are you grateful for this Christmas?

Ten Things I Am Grateful For

1. Decorating our home for Christmas.
2. Our new home.
3. Hearing Mike say, “I love my job!”
4. Living close to family.
5. Friends who always love and show mercy.
6. Sticking with and finishing our sixteen week workout plan.
7. Spending time in the Adoration chapel this past week.
8. Seeing my dream come to life in Moscati Scrubs.
9. The gift of Peter. He is beaming with joy this season and his laugh and smile bring my heart so much hope!
10. Mike! He is my rock and my heart. I’ve truly never met anyone like him. He is my greatest gift!