one thousand gifts & a little giveaway

one the character qualities that always draws me to another person
is that of a grateful heart.

gratitude is contagious. don't you think?

& i believe having an attitude of gratitude can be the deciding factor between happiness and joy.
happiness occurs when all is well in life, for the moment anyways.
versus true joy.  joy blooms in our lives when practicing gratitude has been cultivated.

a joyful spirit & a peaceful heart.
those are two things that sometimes elude me when things are falling apart.
who am i fooling?  they often elude me at the mention of the possibility of the maybe....well before the falling apart has even begun. which honestly, it rarely does.
i disappoint myself when i see how quickly my happy nature gets all out of whack the instant a crisis arises or the instant i decide to worry about something. which incidentally seldom comes to fruition anyways.
but i feel that having a grateful heart cultivates that joyful spirit that i truly long for.
& then when i'm focused on what i'm grateful for, peace often follows. & quickly too!

i'm not all 'my glass is half full'
 nor am i all for faking when times are hard just to appear like all is well.
having said that i realize there is often a fine line between working things through privately and carefully deciding when to react or respond.
geez, what do i know?! it's early in the morning and i'm trying to make sense of the all the thoughts rumbling around in my head about a thankful heart.

what i'm trying to say is that i truly want to be authentic
 i want to be real.
but equally important,
i want to always have my eyes open for the things that i'm grateful for.

years ago, when the girls were little i made a thankfulness journal.
sounds sorta corny,  yet i wanted them to practice the principal of counting their blessings & naming them one by one.
being grateful takes practice
it takes an effort to look & see, taste & see that He is good.
& He loves to give good gifts to us.
i want them to look , see, & then be thankful. not just for the biggies either.
that little simple things in their lives, in my life, are worthy of being thankful.

 while i no longer keep the little journal on the kitchen table, i find other ways to keep my girls talking about the good in their life. no matter how small.

one of my sweet bloggy friends, tara, sent me the book "one thousand gifts".
it's the current homecoming queen in blog world as it seems everyone is talking about it!
& everyone is loving it too!
well i could hardly put it down.
i've been familiar with ann voskamp since she traveled with a group of bloggers on a compassion international tour several years ago.
while her writing style is sometimes a tad hard for me to follow, her desire to count it all blessing
to write it out
to make a tangible choice of cultivating a thankful heart
is the gospel in action
and inspires me to keep on keeping on with being thankful even in the hard times.

i have a copy i'd love to give away.
while this gift isn't glamorous or pricey,
it packs priceless words of encouragement that i'm certain will bless you immensely!

i'd love for you to have a little copy of your own,
so leave me a comment.
you don't have to tell me something you're grateful for, but it would be sweet to see my comments just filled in with the chorus of grateful hearts.
so, lay it on me....