1000 Little Blessings

On the way to school in the mornings, one son leads us in the 23 Psalm, on the Lords’ Prayer, one chooses a psalm – and then I pray – they that they let others know about the love of Jesus either through their words or prayer, that they have relationship with the Father through the day.

I’ve been challenging them to find 3 people to pray for throughout the day – maybe not in words but in their hearts, not just the bullied but the bullies.

Finding God while sitting in hard chairs, learning dry knowledge in books, eating lunch food that leaves a bad taste in your mouth – teaching my boys to find God in a school that says He is not allowed – that’s a tough gig.

Last year, I started counting 1000 Gifts along with Ann at A Holy Experience. That counting has been life changing, relationship-changing.

The counting released the Father from the box I had place Him in. Quite a few years ago, I took Him out of one box – the Sunday, church day and evening prayer box. By expanding prayer and bible time, I only put Him in another box – a bigger box granted.

Counting 1000 Gifts has taken Him out of any box. I meet Him everywhere. I’ve found love letters He’s written me on nature hikes. He’s sent me gifts, like swirling leaves in the autumn sun, to make me smile. He sends cardinals and squirrels across my path to let me know He is there – in a year, in a 1,000 ways, He sends me messages in these gifts He leaves in my path.

I struggled this week with these gifts – 10 more to go to reach 1000 – and I wanted them to be a culminating, crescendo –

Nothing seemed worthy of a crescendo, the blessings didn’t seem good enough – and, He was there, in the butter and the oysters I made this afternoon – reminding me of what this 1000 gift journaling has been about – to vintage the little blessings that change the everyday.

The simple gifts He gives aren’t about crescendo – it’s about relationship, one-on-one time, seeing Him everywhere, finding His messages to me everywhere, opening and reading them – in a walk where our heads are bent together in conversation, in the tree-top squirrel nests, in the memory of my grandmother’s milk box, in a yellow lemon. . . . .

Intentional looking uncovered gifts He placed in my path daily – everywhere – that is something I want to teach my sons – how to find His gifts while they sit in hard chairs, learning dry knowledge, eating lunches that leave a bad taste in their mouths.

1036) purple tulips tucked in my grocery cart Friday after work
1037) fixed shower handles that work (meaning – a house full of boys no longer are using my bathroom)
1038) little hands helping fold laundry with a good attitude
1039) listening to my boys doing math with their dad
1040) a Reuben sandwich with my Valentine at a restaurant where they know your name
1041) an afternoon playing with grandbaby girl
1042) snow flurries
1043) cardinals calling outside my window
1044) oysters, butter, sautéed onion and cream for Sunday stew
1045) white cloud wisps in a robin’s egg blue sky
1046) my bedroom window cracked to let in cold air for a rare afternoon nap, wrapped in my down blanket – not so much sleeping as savoring that snuggled up, refreshing quiet.

Why more than 1,000? Because I make mistakes. How appropriate that there are more blessings than we realize!

• Love Letters from Shaddai, click here
• A Crow’s Message, click here
• Sitting in the Stairwell, Vintaging the Past, click here
• Arms open and Outstretched, click here
• The Runaway’s Hope in a God-Made Ladder, click here