One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

To be perfectly honest, we live in a world where we are all caught up in ourselves. We spend all of time bound up in tight knots of control and consumption. Then, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of something. If we attempt to focus in on that thing, it opens itself up to us. This has happened to me. God has taught me the sweet gift of Eucharisteo, giving thanks. We are allowed to see the holy in our mundane moments. We are allowed to trade entitlement for worship. 

For the past nine months, God has been tenderly teaching me about deep thanks and living fully from where I am at. I had begun writing notes of thanksgiving to friends and, as you know, to my husband. That act has turned into worship for me and produced joy beyond description. I have found that thanksgiving is a weapon in warfare that is seldom overcome. When I feel like yelling at my child or being angry at my husband, I thank God for them out loud and it will defuse the issue. It has allowed me to hallow and guide and love. 

When my friend Suzi told me that I had to read this book because she cried through the whole first chapter, I ordered it right away. I have been overcome by her words. Ann is a guide to sweet thankfulness. She brings a depth and poetry to the table that is seldom experienced in modern literature. I am taken aback. Sometimes, as I would read, her words made me think of the great poets of the past like Percy Shelley and Walt Whitman. Her words and descriptions have ushered the Spirit into deep wounds and healing has come. I wish I could buy you all a copy. I want to read it aloud to you. It drips with liquid resonance. I absolutely loved this book. I am different and more alive because of her testimony. 

Buy this book for everyone you know.

You can read the first chapter of this book, here. Be warned, you will want to buy it.