Friend Friday with My Life as an Adventure

Today I’m thrilled to have Barbara from My Life as an Adventure in my corner! Her post today is challenge for me, each and every day! Thank you so much for sharing today! Make sure y’all swing by and say hi in her corner ok? 😉

 

 

The Thank You Life-Changing Experiment

 

It all started with Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts, a “dare-to-live-right- where-you-are” book. Ann writes like nobody’s business, and she has a way of drawing you into the nitty gritty of life right where it count, making you realize that we are gifted through and through.

 

It is good for me, this opening of my eyes to the reality of gifts all around. It is as an awakening. I took the gentle admonition seriously, starting my own list of gifts, both on my blog and in the secret places of my heart. I see them everywhere now, these life-giving, spirit-lifting gifts. I find them everywhere, even in snakes… And the realization of them changes me. The giving of thanks for them turns me into someone else. But that’s only the beginning of the story.  Because there is always more, isn’t there?

I get Michael Hyatt blog posts, neatly tucked into my mailbox a couple of times a week. I find him to be a great leader and I glean so much from his insight. One of his blog post talked about being thankful, and saying so. He told of his practice to write an unexpected thank you note to one of his clients daily. The idea quietly leapt into my heart; I knew I had to make it mine.

So I started.  Daily I send off a quick email to someone, thanking them for something they have done, or something about them.  At first it was quite easy, but as the days and weeks went on, I began to wonder who I was going to send one to the next day, and the next, and the next.  I told myself that this could not become an item checked on a daily list of routine things to do; it had to remain an action from my heart.

My great list of thankfulness kind of got short after a while.  I had to think harder.  Dig deeper. Look more intently. Daily, I was being transformed by the process. And I still am being transformed–wonderfully becoming, that is.

The change in “them” is interesting. Some people are embarrassed, shocked, speechless. Some are encouraged, strengthened, renewed. With some, there is no obvious reaction; I have no idea if this is speaking to them or not. The change in me is powerful, vital, delightful.

Every morning I ponder the people I have come across the day before and consider who to thank, and how to do it. I am finding in me the desire to express my thankfulness well, so I am becoming more creative; some days it’s an email, some days it’s flowers, or a hand-written note, or a phone call.  And it is marvelous.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
I have known thankfulness to be the feeling that wells up in me when I am given something undeserved, or someone goes out of his/her way to be kind to me, or helps me when I am stuck. But I am finding that there is so much more to thankfulness than the unexpected reaction to something.

Thankfulness is a practice: I can become better at it as time goes by.  Maybe one day, I might even excel.

Thankfulness is a seed: first, there is a death to self, then growth, and fruit.                    

                                                                                                                         
Thankfulness is a purposeful habit: done daily for reasons bigger than itself.

 

Thankfulness is life-changing: it gives new eyes.                                                                                                                                                         

Thankfulness makes me thankful.

It is a garment that beautifies the soul.

Cultivating Thankfulness with Ann Voskamp
#309 Time with my husband
#308Fresh flowers
#307 Life changing habits
#306 New Ideas

Barbara was born in Belgium and crossed the pond 32 years ago after marrying her American best friend. She is a daughter of the King of kings, writer, motivator, mother, personal trainer, sister, holistic health practitioner, lover of life.  Some call her the “exercise nazi.” She maintains two blogs, www.barbsfitublog.wordpress.com where she posts about health, nutrition and exercise, and www.mylifeasanadventure.com where she tells on herself as she journeys through life with Jesus.