"Eucharisteo - thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle."
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
I use to see books or articles on gratitude and think, I wish I could remember to be more thankful. I would try various ways to remind myself to be thankful. Nothing stuck until....The List (I will get to that in a minute.)! I believe that deep, profound gratitude is a process and not a point of arrival and that's where the perfectionist in me often gets frustrated. It is a process that has to be repeated over and over again. Being grateful makes you pause and be present in the moment. Gratitude is not just about being thankful for the good things happening in your life, but it is also about recognizing abundance even when times are tough.
Six years ago this October my sister and I started "the list." The list began after we read the book, Make Miracles in Forty Days: Turning What You Have into What You Want by Melody Beattie. The premise of the book is that we should be thankful for ALL things in our life - the good, the bad and the ugly. She suggests making a list each day of everything you are grateful for and continuing this for forty days. Melanie calls this the Miracle Exercise. She also highly recommends finding a friend, partner, sibling, etc. to share your list with every day. I believe that sharing my list is what made all the difference! Let me share with you the very first list I sent to my sister....
The List - Day One 10/31/2011 Today I am thankful that.....
I decided to start the list even though I don't have my goals written and I am not 100 % sure I understand how to do this - it is hard for me to not do things in the right order
I woke up and was annoyed with Steven - we are out of sync and it is driving me crazy (sorry honey you know I love you)!
I have PMS
Andrew spilled salad dressing on my new Auburn sweatshirt and I am washing it for a second time to try and get the oil out
The kids are out of school and I want to be alone today
I have a sister - I couldn't do this list with anyone else
It's Halloween and I can't wait for it to be over
I have to go to the grocery today and I hate going to the grocery
I have God in my life and He is always with me even when it doesn't feel like it
It's funny to look back on this list and oh how I am grateful to be done with the age of Halloween costumes! Our list making continued on a regular/daily basis for probably four years. We have changed the format a few different times, and over the past couple of years, we have been a little less consistent. However, this past week I was feeling a little overwhelmed with life and realized I needed a big dose of gratitude! I suggested to my sister that we text each other just one thing we are grateful for each day. When I received her texts this week, it made me pause and remember all the abundance in my life, and I felt less frazzled and more thankful.
Another book my sister and I stumbled upon shortly after Make Miracles in Forty Days was One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. Here is a description of the book as described on the back cover......
"Just like you, Ann Voskamp hungers to live her one life well. Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. 'How, ' Ann wondered, 'do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does a life of gratitude look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes dark? What is God providing here and now?' In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. As Ann discovered, when we give thanks, we find ourselves wildly loved by God. In expressing gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted---a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. Let Ann's beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to thanksgiving, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living so you are not afraid to die. Come feast at the table of joy."
Undoubtedly, this is one of my favorite books of all time! It came at the perfect time (#miracle) right after we did our forty day Miracle Exercise! I could write a whole blog post solely on Ann Voscamp because I am such a fan of her message and writing. She has a blog called Holy Experience which is phenomenal -http://annvoskamp.com/ Make sure to check it out!
The quote I opened with on this blog post is from Ann's book, One Thousand Gifts. It reminds me again and again that miracles begin with thanksgiving and gratitude! Here is how she breaks down thanksgiving....
"And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them." Luke 22:19
In the original language, "He gave thanks " reads "Eucharisteo."
The root word of Eucharisteo is charis, meaning "grace." Jesus took bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be a gift and gave thanks.
Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning "joy."
Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo - the table of thanksgiving.
Grace. Thanksgiving.Joy.Eucharisteo.
Eucharisteo - thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle.
Ann Voskamp - One Thousand Gifts
This passage on thanksgiving hits home for me in a particularly special way as a Catholic because each time I go to Mass, I hear these words as I participate in the Eucharist. (Side Note - Please know I am not trying to imply that being Catholic is in any way an advantage.) I feel that without grace, thanksgiving, and joy we can not fully embrace the life God intends for us to live. I am extremely far from perfecting the art of gratitude, but this new practice of being thankful has brought so much more joy to my life.
Give it a try - find someone to share a list with today!