Gateways to Joy

A nn Voskamp challenges us once again, and she shares her January, Joy Dare calendar with us .  Hers is  on her fridge.  That's where mine will be as well.  What about you?  Where will you hang yours? If you want to download this calendar and participate in giving daily gratitude in January and need some ideas, print Ann's calendar out here.   Download the January Joy Dare Calendar by Ann Voskamp. I often think of this quote that I read in One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are . "A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit." ~ Eramus How do we become habitual in giving joy?  By giving joy, my friends.  By expressing our gratitude. Oh, friend— let's start the new year off right.  Let's make a commitment to give him thanks in all things and then let's have a treasure hunt of sorts, looking for joy around us, expressing joy.  Go ahead and grab a tablet & pencil so that you can b...

I wake up with it all on my mind: the interruptions.   For years now it seems, I've had one interruption after another with the end results being the same: nothing.  Appearing only to be a waste of time. "What have they been good for?" I lie in bed scanning the mind for answers.  All that has really come out of it is what I've already known.  I have layers of sin-sickness and my instability only peels the layers away exposing the truth.   Smokescreens.   The crux of it all boils down to a lack of trust...I'm sensing.  But why do I lack trust?  Do I feel I know better than the all-knowing God how to run my life?   Doesn't my actions speak louder than what I say, so the answer to that question would be yes.  His actions spoke loud too, and revealed His heart toward me: us.  The Bible tells us that God so loved the World that He gave His Son ...   God proved that He loved me by '...

T o live fully right where I am...numbering gifts is how I will live out the remainder of my life, be it near are far. This numbering of gifts is souls food.  It satisfies.  Relationships, life they are all seen through a different perspective.  Even the way I look at myself.  As Ann says in her book, there are some hard thanks, but I'm even learning with those that many of them—the ugly situations will be the very situations that allows the beauty to glow.  His beauty.  I want Him...His beauty.  Long to fill my days with Him more.  This is what the counting of gifts is doing for me.  I feel the pull—the yearn of wanting to be His woman again.  I continue to feel Him here in the moments.  I know that He's pleased.  He likes this: me counting gifts. I must become more obedient and live more of a Eucharist life... right here.  Right now.  Even in the ugly. "Thanksgiving is possible not because ...