Gratitude Journal...

It's 40% off "coupon week" at Hobby Lobby.

For us, this means that--if we're in Rochester--we will often stop by and browse around.  I'm a mother of one little girl...and what can I say?  It's one of our favorite mother-daughter activities.  Sometimes I'll pick up a magazine...  Sometimes a chain for beading...  Sometimes some craft supplies...

I was hoping to find a gratitude journal.

But it had to be special...

I figured I'd know it when I saw it.

I rummaged through the pile of journals.

There were several that were fine, but none that called out to me...

until I saw this one:

 

Mmm hmm...I would say this was meant to be my gratitude journal.  (With the coupon, I paid just under $2! I almost felt guilty using a coupon...) Thank you, Lord...

I went home and promptly copied the quote from Ann Voskamp's book onto the front page--the one about how "I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks . . ."  You can read the rest at this post if you want.

So . . . if the goal is to write down 1000 gifts . . .  Where do I begin?  I mean, I could just start looking around the room and begin to fill the pages of this book, but that wouldn't be meaningful.

So, through the course of the day, when something just jumps out to me as a gift from the Lord, I write it down.  It may be something significant, or very small, but it was something that filled my heart with warmth and thankfulness for that moment.

And so begins my journey to 1000 gifts! I really like the idea of writing down just a few words to remember those special moments in the day. For example, today, Elizabeth and I were doing school.  We sit across from one another at a narrow black table.  As you can imagine, home schooling can sometimes bring tension into the mother-daughter relationship.  This morning, after reading our devotions together, we both leaned in nose-to-nose across the table, and she gave me the most precious little "nose kiss".  I put both of my hands on her sweet little face, closed my eyes, just held her close, and drank-up the moment because I knew it was a gift. 10. Spontaneous nose kiss during school God is so good.