one thousand gifts...

once again i'm right with the current trends {eh-hm}.

i tend to buck trends.  if a movie is popular, i wait a year to see it,

if a book is on the best seller's list, chances are i read it way before or way after the craze.

but i finally picked up ann voskamp's book thanks to a friend's gifting it to me.

via:here

and oh my goodness!

this book is amazing.

amazing.

ann talks about life... a bit autobiographical, a lot poetic,

and 100% faith.

she has walked a hard road

and yet she is honest in her struggles with her faith.

she shares the revelation she had in pursuing after Christ through a constant heart of thanksgiving {eucharisteo},

even in the hard things.

she came to a deeper place in her faith, an intimate relationship with the creator, by habitually finding the gifts He gives us in every day life.

 challenging herself by counting these gifts all the way to one thousand .

to live a full life, everyday treasuring what you've been given and dwelling in that place.

and she challenges her readers to do the same.

i have started my own one thousand gifts smash book,

which i will share once i am further into it.

in the mean time, if you are a slacker like me who has yet to read it,

please do.

you won't regret it!

a tid-bit:

i look down at the pen, this pen i keep wielding, one writing her way all the way to one thousand.  this pen: this is nothing less than the driving of nails.  nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo.  i'm hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart. it starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it's been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent.  because the habit of discontent can only be driven out by hammering  in one iron sharper.  the sleek pin of gratitude.~ ann voskamp