Friday, November 23, 2012

One Thousand Gifts!


Today I am thankful for . . .

1000.  The gift of The Book, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp, which inspired me to track my blessings for a year . . . writing down three blessings a day until I reached 1000 . . . well, here I am!  It didn't even take one full year to do this, and I will continue on with this process on my blog until December 31, 2012.  Then I think I'll just keep a written journal for myself, tracking my blessings on paper in 2013 and beyond. 

I cannot tell you how much growth I've experienced personally as I've "named" my blessings each day.  Of course, there are so many more blessings that never made it onto the pages of this blog, but it was fun to pick-and-choose what I would share with you all each day. 

I truly hope you have been inspired to look beyond the ordinary in your day, only to find that BLESSINGS ABOUND ALL AROUND YOU, and THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!  I challenge all of my readers to keep a list of all they are thankful for--perhaps you could make it a goal for 2013.  If you take me up on this challenge, I'd love to hear about it.  Of course I don't expect you to write a blog post each day to proclaim your blessings to the world, but I'd just like to know if anyone is going to commit to doing this.

In reading more of Ann Voskamp's thoughts via her blog, which you can find here, I recently read the following statistics, which I thought were quite insightful.  I am actually going to quote Ann's words from her blog which lead up to the statistics, and I hope you will find those words to be encouraging as well:

"It's habits that can imprison you and it's habits that can free you and when thanks to God becomes a habit, so joy in God becomes your life.
 
Maybe a life needs a change over and over again -- that constant turning to God?  Not so much new month resolutions but revolutions.
 
And why bother keeping a gratitude list of His gifts?
 
Because those who keep a gratitude list:
 
1.  Have a relative absence of stress and depression.  (Woods et al., 2008);
 
2.  Make progress towards important personal goals.  (Emmons and McCullough, 2003);
 
3.  Report higher levels of determination and energy (Emmons and McCullough, 2003);
 
4.  Feel closer in their relationships and desire to build stronger relationships.  (Algoe and Haidt, 2009);
 
5.  Increase their happiness by 25% -- (Who wouldn't want a quarter more happiness!)  (McCullough et al., 2002)."
 
~Ann Voskamp~

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Congratulations! I have loved reading along with every single one of them. I hope you find some way to keep making regular posts in the year ahead. I look forward to your daily notes. It is one of the bright spots in my day. (I know! I know! Even though I don't get a chance to comment very often. I need to get better at that, since there are so many things that you write that a little tidbit pops into my head that I could comment about.)

Anonymous said...

One thousand! I've enjoyed reading about the many things you have been thankful for this year. I hope to make a "thankful tree" while we count down to Christmas Day, and I'm hoping my family will participate in counting our blessings each day!
Anita

Connie Mae Inglis said...

Gratitude...thankfulness...joy, joy, joy!
Yes, yes, yes!!!!!!!!!

Connie Mae Inglis said...

Gratitude--Thankfulness--Joy, joy, joy!
Yes, yes, yes!!!!!
Thanks for your 1000+ posts.