One Thousand Gifts {a book club}

Thank you to Beth over at Until Only Love Remains, I picked up a precious gem of a book at the local library: One Thousand Gifts. Beth and her friend are hosting a online book club about this book and encouraging readers to post each week their thoughts on the book including listing 21 gifts you have been given.

Chapter 1:

Favorite quotes:

• "There's a reason I am not writing the story and God is. He knows how it all works out, where it leads, what it all means. {...} Maybe, I guess, it's accepting there are things we simply don't understand. But He does." (page 21)
• "to fully live - to live full of grace and joy and all that is beauty eternal. it is possible, wildly.  I now see and testify. So this story - my story. A dare to an emptier, fuller life." (page 23)

Insights:

I am in no way in control of my own story, and that is OK. He understands all that goes on in my life, and I don't, and that is OK. I need to learn to accept that. Although my mother's stroke was a big blow to our whole family. God was there. He had a plan. Through that event He grew my family closer together. He taught my mom & I to understand each other more. He brought my dad to be a better husband & also to our church. God had a plan. Although it was not the story I was writing in my head, it is God's perfect story & He knows how it is going to work out.

This book, so far, is much different than I thought it would be. I don't know what I thought it would be or how it is different, but it is. and I like it. Maybe it had to do with all the pain & sorrow in the stories that she shared right off the bat. My heart hurt for her and her family. Starting at the young age of four, she has suffered great loss. This loss cost her family to fall from God. But I have a feeling we will learn a lot more about loss and how to run back to God through the process of grief.

One Thousand Gifts

1. napping on the couch with the hubs
2. spring days
3. fresh snow
4. satisfaction in my career
5. old friends
6. new friends
7. our awesome apartment
8. my sweet little niece, and the niece that is on the way
9. a husband that cooks me surprise meals
10. days off to relax
11. hobbies like crocheting & blogging
12. an iPod given by my dear friend
13. candles
14. for grocery money to buy the essentials & the treats
15. daily smoothies
16. Pinterest
17. memories
18. a family that likes spending time together
19. in-laws that lend us their car
20. refreshing ice water
21. comfortable pillows