Gifts.

I want to get this book I just heard about: One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. Having not read it, I don't know exactly what it will turn out to be about, but I'm pretty sure it's about noticing God's gifts to us in the everyday.

I know that God blesses us constantly, but I fully admit that I don't always see the gifts, blocked by blindness, apathy, self-centeredness, etc. The last couple days, however, since finding out about this book, I've been trying to recognize these gifts more consciously.

I don't know that I'll carry this on, but I wanted to make mention of two that gifts that I was graced with today. (I had three, but I can't remember the third.)

[1] This one requires background info:  I was going to make an actual dinner tonight, an easy one that took about 45-50 minutes to bake. Simple recipe, no big deal. But as life happens, stuff comes up, and it became later than I had wanted it to be when I got it started. My mother in law had called earlier, asking what I had planned for dinner, and offering to treat the three of us (hubby's away on a fencing trip, remember) to Chinese tomorrow night. Then, of course, my 4yo pops up with wanting hot dogs. (sigh) I asked 7yo what she wanted and she said, "French toasted tuna fish sandwiches?" [Note: this is a wacky family recipe from growing up that most people find vile; ask me in a comment if you want it and I'll explain.] This dish, although not hard, is time-consuming. BUT. She had half her tuna sandwich left over from lunch - it was like I saw the plate, and the heavens opened and sent a beam of light shining straight down on that sandwich. Perfect - French toast her sandwich, hot dogs for 4yo, move Chinese to tonight. Thank you, God!!!

[2] (No background info here.) I. just. love. when someone "likes" a comment I make on someone's status on Facebook. You know...someone updates their status, you make a comment, and someone (either the author of the status or someone else) clicks that happy little "like" button. I love when they do that. It's better when they like my status. It tells me that I was able to break through the normal, standard, everyone-saying-the-same-thing comments, and find something unique, something true, something special to the reader. It's best when the status' author does the liking, because it tells me that I got what they said, that I understood, that I connected. It's not a matter of "they liked my comment best"; it's a matter of "yes...I understand...I know what you mean, and you know that I know." (And I feel like a good writer.) Thank you, God!!!

Ooh, I thought of a [3]!! Not the same one, but still just as note-worthy. There's a woman, a friend of mine, I finally realized I'm jealous of. She would disagree, but it appears to me that she has it all together. It feels like she's peaceful, that she's organized, and that - even in her stress or fatigue or chaos! - her life makes sense. Like I said, she'd be the first to disagree. But it BUGS me. And at first I was feeling like she was being fake, like she was putting her persona on display, like she was just trying so hard to have the perfect life and show everyone. But then I thought of a story another friend of mine told during a conference, where she started praying for a woman she was really having trouble getting along with.. She started praying blessings on the head of this woman, here "enemy." Well...my friend is not my enemy, but I am experiencing conflict because of her...and suddenly today I stopped and said, "Lord, give her good things today." You know that peaceful feeling, that settling-in feeling when you know something's being quietly right? Thank you, God!!!

I'll let you know if I end up buying the book (and if I was right about what it's about).