When you just don't care.

There's this challenge - to be thankful for 1,000 things. Sometimes it's really difficult. When I start to focus on what went wrong, it just doesn't happen. This happened to me the other day. When I woke up, I was crazy mad before I ever got out of bed.  (That isn't a regular occurrence for me, that almost never happens, (she said tongue in cheek) but that day I was really in a funk.) I had told my husband I wanted to be an early bird and not a night owl.  So I ended up becoming an early owl. I didn't get enough sleep and I had the eyes of an irate early owl and the mood of an angry bear.

Then, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find anything to be thankful for. I didn't like anyone or anything.  And to make me feel worse, I knew I should be thankful, grateful, appreciative and I wasn't. Knowing you're failing at a challenge really lifts your mood too.... Not.

I was supposed to think of 3 gifts I received "at noon."  Really? Well, How about the gift of sarcasm, I definitely had a heaping gift of criticism that day, and then I gave a gift too.  Yay me. I gave a gift. Does that count?  I mean, I know we're thinking of things to be thankful for so, thoughtful me, I gave a gift to my dog.  I decided he was going to go on a diet. (I know. I'm a real sweetie.) Dear doggie, today my gift to you is that you are going to lose some of that extra fat! Aren't you glad I'm around?! You know it's bad when you walk in the house and the dog hides. :/

=====================later====================

My list of things to be grateful for is really awakening me.  I realize now just how much I need to focus on gratitude in all things in my life.  The above post is unfortunately true I am sorry to say.  Spikey really is on a diet now, and I was a super grumpy early owl. Or maybe I was a late bird.  I don't know.  Either way, I am going to be honest all this year with my 1,000 gifts and truthfully, not every day is a win/win.

But hey, "tomorrow is another day," said Scarlett O'Hara.  Tomorrow I will overcome.

 My husband is so wonderful.  After that very bad, terrible, horrible, no good day,

he gave me this card.

The End.

3 Gifts Hard Eucharisteo

This means that you are thankful for 3 things but that require a little more effort because sometimes they involve "hard lessons" of grace and joy and thanksgiving when we don't naturally feel like that.

Giving thanks to God - especially - when you need a miracle.

1. Trusting God with things I cannot see right now and believing he is always in control.
2. Thanking God that "iron sharpens iron" and my husband sharpens me.
3.  My __________.  A "hard Eucharisteo."

The root word of this word is the Greek Charis.
Charis means grace. Chara means joy.

Eucharisteo : Grace, thanksgiving, joy.

The root word for our daughter's name: Charissa!

3 Gifts Golden

Three (golden) gifts from God that I am thankful for today:

Crabcakes on a bed of lettuce with lovely lemon butter :) 

The glow of warm lights inside Christmas light-up houses for a friend 

A friend's Golden birthday party at Crush Lounge with my awesome husband.

3 Gifts of Remembrance

1.  I remember His promises.  Today I reread some of them to remind myself what the ending is. :)

(Don't you just love knowing that everything is going to end "ok"?  Some days it takes faith to believe that what you don't see now, will come to be someday.  I guess that's the definition of faith anyway.  "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and confident of what we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1)

2.  I remember courageous soldiers. Only 1% of all Americans actually have the grit to become soldiers.  That makes them a special minority.  They are wonderful!

3.  I remember words of love, spoken by people I love.  And that makes me love them more instead of focusing on bad words or events that happened.  I remember to love.  

3 Gifts found in Bible Reading

I read Acts 16-17 today.  Sometimes gifts come in the form of reassurance.  Today I read about how Paul and Silas were doing the will of God and you would think that if you are doing what God wants, that you're going to have this glowing aura of protection and blessing on your life.  Everything you touch will turn into gold and everything smells like roses kind of world.  Well, not so much.

Paul and Silas were doing everything God wanted and they had it bad.  They were stripped and beaten with rods (Acts 16:22), they were thrown into prison (Acts 16:23), "Jason's" family was thrown into jail because the people thought he let Paul and Silas stay in his home.

My three lessons I learned today:

1. Sometimes you do God's will and bad things still happen. (Acts 16:19)
2. And then sometimes those bad consequences result in a miracle. (Acts 16:25-26)
3. God is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:27)

Those were my three things from reading today.  I hope they encouraged you somehow!

A Gift SWEET, SALTY, SIPPED

This was so easy.  Sweetpea and I both had a big cup of amazing squash soup.  In a grande to-go (coffee) paper cup from a local store.

Awesome, amazing, delicious, sipped gift.

THANK YOU!

Image credit: SimplyRecipes.com

3 Gifts Eaten

1. Piece of Godiva chocolate
2. Was a piece of pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting
3. Little Caesars pizza

I'm reading this book, 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp . It's about looking for ways God has blessed you every day and then personally thanking him for them.  I knew today was going to be focusing on 3 gifts eaten and after I read it, I promptly forgot it. :( Then we went to Costco later in the afternoon. I took a demo piece of chocolate (does anyone not take chocolate?) and as soon as I put it in my mouth I thought, "this is GREAT!" I heard a happy "that's one." I smiled.  And did say thank you because I don't purchase Godiva chocolates. Ever.

Then we had purchased Pumpkin rolls with frosting.  That night I cut myself a piece and I thought, "this looks SOO pretty!" My attention span seems to be short some days.... but when I took a bite, I was reminded that this was another blessing from God. I smiled again. :)

Then at the end of the day, I was wondering what the third edible blessing was. I thought of the wonderful, hot cup of coffee Craig brought to me this morning, and also thought of the Little Caesars pizza we ate after work.  Both were blessings.  

When I look for God, I discover how many good things he really has blessed me with. How good it is to see God in every aspect of your life.  I have so much to be thankful for. :). I hope you get encouraged to read the book.