by Natasha Hayden
November 29, 2013
Disclaimer: In accordance with Thanksgiving, this blog will be a bit more of a personal reflection and have less to do with Children of the Wells, though anything personal serves to give our readers a glance at the person behind the mask, and that has everything to do with what we are creating here.
Over the past year, I have been keeping a journal of Gifts. I was inspired by the book 1000 Gifts, by Ann Voskamp, which I highly recommend. I capitalize Gifts because these aren’t just birthday or Christmas gifts or any nice little thing somebody gives me. The Gifts I’ve been recording are the kind that come unexpectedly on any given day. They are beautiful. They are meaningful. Some are simple. Some are physical. Many are intangible. All remind me of the ultimate Gift-giver: Jesus Christ. In fact, I consider each one to be a Gift from him.
Here’s number 26 from January of this year: Fyo (my son) misusing the phrase “I’m so proud of you,” when he’s super excited about something.
A Gift Fyo found
In April, number 410: T-shirts and 70 degrees.
August, number 709: Warm blueberry pie and cold milk.
November, number 988: Kids asking to kiss my ouchies when I hurt myself.
A week ago, number 1000: Renny (my daughter) praying “Thank you for the mama” today.
These Gifts are just moments of my life, sure, moments I could have easily overlooked and forgotten, but aren’t all the moments the important parts? Life isn’t a birth, a graduation, a job success, a wedding. It’s largely the intervals between. It’s not the high points or the low points. It’s how we choose to live through each.
This Thursday, we celebrated a holiday that’s about family and good food, happy feelings and comfort in various forms. It’s called pre-Christmas…or might as well be, because the stores are decorated, the lights are going up, and today, the streets are flooded with shoppers trying to get the biggest presents for the least amount of money.
We are too busy thinking about what we can get to remember to take even one day to say thanks. How much we have, and how little we are grateful for it!
One-thousand-plus Gifts ago, I pledged to make this a year of giving thanks. It’s not a huge thing. It’s not even a hard thing. It hasn’t revolutionized my life…yet. It has only begun to chip away at my calloused tendency to take things for granted. I’m still far too selfish and too whiny and too needy, but perhaps a little less than I used to be. I’m heading in the right direction. And with a heart full of gratitude, I recognize that the little I need will be provided for, and as for what I want, I have all the best Gifts already.
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