Life has been a tad busy and my pathway to the computer is blocked by a queen sized bed so the writing has been slim. I've been reading a book called 'A Thousand Gifts' written by the same woman who writes 'a holy experience' on my sidebar-Ann Voskamp. To be honest, when I first started reading her book, I felt something unfamiliar. I felt jealousy. I wished I could write like her. My mother told me long ago that I was born without the jealous gene, so don't think that my lack of familiarity with that feeling makes me a spiritual giant or anything. If I was born without it, I did nothing to not receive it, just like I did nothing to receive naturally curly hair.
I didn't like that green eyed feeling so I went to Jesus and He said, "Pray for her." And as soon as I did, I became her friend, and felt proud of her, and now I want to take a road trip to visit her. Anyone who writes with such depth and beauty has been through deep pain, and I pray for her pain and her sensitive heart that receives both the ugly and the beautiful as gifts from His hands. I was struck by her insight about the 10 lepers who were all healed by Jesus, but only one came back to thank Him. Jesus said to that thankful one, 'Your faith has made you whole.' Jesus can and does heal us.
But a thankful faith can make us whole.
I want to be whole.
Lately, I've been thinking about three things.
1. Forgetting what is past and pressing forward to what is ahead.
2. Having courage.
3. And being thankful.
So for right now, I am not going to be writing about the daily doings of the Hertzler Family and just adding the three things I am thankful for at the end of each day.
I am going to write about what I am thankful for and 'the doings' will be mixed in with my thankful words. I've started my notebook and it lays open on my newly cleaned up desk.
Here's to "one thousand gifts." I accept the challenge to cultivate a thankful faith. Thank you, dear friend, Ann, for being here just when I need you most.
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