Monday. The second one of the new year. Last week slipped by, still a holiday. Today tries to get away as well.
Sick this morning with a stomach bug generously shared by my beloved (he’s a giver!), I didn’t get up early and the whole day has felt behind and as I look again and again at the to do list on my phone I feel heavy and frustrated that so little has been accomplished. And my spirit reminds me of my desire to yield this year, to put my own agenda aside and trust Him with my days and my to dos and some things will just have to wait.
But He still gives generously, even when the task list runs long and daunting and the stomach turns and discouragement threatens nearby. So in these few moments before dinner, before ballet and gymnastics, and a couple of hours in the car, I begin again to list the gifts. I pick up where I left off, but I take Ann’s challenge to list 1000 in a year. A new journal, fresh pages to list the love gifts, both laughter-filled and cried over, because if the easy things He gives are gifts, aren’t the hard things too?
1496. a week of slow
1497. crafts
1498. baking
1499. movies
1500. girls afternoon out with Grandpa
1501. impromptu dinner date with the hubs
1502. working iPhone
1503. Christmas weekend – so many good gifts!
1504. a slower week
1505. he’s 35!
1506. celebrating the gift he is to me
1507. home office, 3.0
1508. quiet New Year’s Eve at home
1509. the end of a wonderfully long, much-needed break
1510. one month until I meet her
1511. four days without a computer; realizing how much time it eats
**1512. a new year, a new list
1513. the challenge to count 1000 gifts in one year
1514. an afternoon out with the oldest
1515. Sunday
1516. thing checked off instead of put off
1517. sick on a Monday
1518. continually yielding my schedule to His
Will you join me this year in counting the gifts? Will you take the challenge to count 1000 before the curtain closes on 2012? It’s not hard. His gifts are all around us, if we will only open our eyes to see them.
For His Glory ~
~ Sara