Seeing right.

A few years ago I read Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. I really enjoyed it. And, while I don't agree with every train of thought in it, it's a book I find myself thinking about and mulling over from time to time. I love Ann's challenge to readers to practice thankfulness on a daily basis, not just the faddish pre-Thanksgiving kind of thankfulness. 

I firmly believe that it's possible to practice thanksgiving in every single season of life. If I can't be thankful, then it's a matter of me not seeing correctly. Because, truthfully, there is an un-ending list of gifts God has given and I can recognize...in the hard times, I can be grateful. In the painful times, I can be grateful. In the ecstatic times, I can be grateful. It's a matter of seeing right.

I'm thinking about thankfulness a lot this month, and hoping I can practice it long after Thanksgiving has come and gone.

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“How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy- and seeing shows the way in.” 

― Ann Voskamp