I started a new kind
of list not too long ago. Inspired by
Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, I
began naming gifts in each day—big and small—and giving thanks. Here are a few I will share with you.
Jeremy and I sharing 20 years of marriage. All the
“remember when…” moments, the laughs, the struggles, the victories, the
changes. I don’t want to take for
granted our days, our life together. He
is my favorite.
Katerin getting her driver’s license. What is
amazing about this gift is not how she can help drive her siblings to
activities, although that is AWESOME, but how she completed the online
class totally independently after learning English only the year before.
Emily making new friends in school. You may not
realize how hard this has been for her over the years. But this year Emily has grown A LOT --
becoming more confident to be herself and to open up to others.
Marian donating 11 inches of her hair—cutting off
11 inches of her own hair! What you
may not know is that Marian values her hair maybe more than anything. What I love about this gift is how this
outward thing shows a beautiful inward transformation.
Wesley sharing all kinds of sports facts with me. As I listen
I am amazed that he thinks I care about these things and that I should know
them. I love how he offers these facts
about any sport and my response of “uh huh” is acceptable.
Omar showing his creativity. It’s the
detail he adds to a Lego creation and what he comes up with in sculpting
plastilina or even wiki sticks. It won’t
be just a boat or a plane, it will have something to it that causes me to not
just say “uh huh” but “That’s cool, Omar. “
I’m fascinated by his ideas and what he finds around the house to make
the cool factor happen.
Saimon providing lots of laughter for all of us. He makes
honest observations and asks questions that crack us up—like “Was I born close to my birthday?”
What’s even better is that he is starting to enjoy laughing about the things he
says with us.
Savannah loving to read. So much so
that her teacher had to call me after school one day to tell me she will have
to take Savannah’s books from her at the beginning of class, and she will only
get them back when she gets her work done properly. And because of her reading, I get interesting
facts about sharks and questions like “Were
you alive during Hurricane Katrina?” that only require an “uh huh” from me.
The way our friends love us. We have
friends that pray daily, bring a meal, invite us over (we are a lot to invite
over), host us overnight…even at short
notice, know our faults and lean in anyway. These are the kind of friends that remind me
of Jesus.
Jesus and how He saves us. How He came
to us and for us. The gift of His
salvation would be gift enough. Yet He
gives us so much more.
