The Joy Dare

"Isn’t that what Aristotle said– 'We are what we repeatedly do.'
Then Christianity isn’t an act — but our faith is expressed only in our habits.
A habit of not complaining, but the habit of giving thanks; the habit of not worrying, but a habit worshiping. The habit of repeatedly giving God praise that our lives might become a prayer. Small is always the leverage of large. It’s one moment after the other, the small moments that turn a life. It’s the small actions that can change a life.

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 change over and over again — that constant turning to God? Not so much resolutions but revolutions.
And in this keeping habit of keeping a gratitude list?"

And this is how Ann Voskamp lures me in - with these words and these questions and these ideas. She goes on to talk about starting her list of 1000 gifts all over again. She wrote out over 2000 gifts already, but she's starting over at 1. Why? Because it is life changing when you learn to give Christ all the praise and make Christianity about Christ. If you haven't read her book, One Thousand Gifts, you should! It is transforming! But at the very least, I'd like to encourage you to look around you and start writing down the gifts that God has given you. When you keep tabs of Gods gifts and thank Him for them, then amazing things can happen. Ann talks about the things she learned as she went through that process of searching for God's blessings and learning to live a life of gratitude. And I can vouch for her assessment. My faith has grown so much after I started to take the time each day to reflect on the things that God has blessed me with. My pity parties did not happen nearly as often, and the ones that I did have were much shorter. My faith in God increased exponentially. My understanding of God increased exponentially. And I've started to make my faith less about me and more about God. Isn't that who we are supposed to honor and glorify? There are some options for making your lists of gifts. In her book, Ann shared that she would keep paper with her throughout the day and when she'd notice something that was a gift from God - a bird singing, children playing, a full moon, whatever - she'd write it down. I tried that, but would forget my paper, so I started spending time every night before going to bed reflecting on my day and would write down my gifts then. Another thing you can do is to look for specific gifts. On her blog, Ann included a Joy Dare where she listed things to search for every day. The idea is to search for God's gifts, to expect to see God's glory. You can print that out here. I'm going to do my best to share with you some of the blessings in my life every Monday. Mine will be from Ann's Joy Dare, so feel free to compare my gifts with her dare if your curious. I would love to hear some of the gifts God has given you!

1. A heart that aches for others
2. A passion for my children
3. Transparency
4. Cool days perfect for playing on swing sets
5. My husband home and safe and transformed
6. Grandma's fruitcake
7. "You have loved us, so we love all"
8. "Thank you for daily bread, through us fill the empty"
9. "All is Grace"
10. A bed good for warm, cuddly children
11. Warm cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast
12. Clear, blue skies
13. Radical and all the truth that I've learned so far
14. Easy brown rice with tuna and peas that got gobbled up and enjoyed.
15. My sweet friend and her sweet girls
16.Burt's Bees Chapstick
17. Leftover chocolate candies
18. One more year of my beautiful sister's life.
19. A husband who runs slow and stops often with me.
20. In-laws who are available
21. Hugs hello from my boys
22. Sunny days for walks with sweet women and boys
23. Energy even when there are bags under my eyes

24. Shadow puppets with the 2 year old