Thousand Gifts Thursday

A little while ago, I did a review on the One Thousand Gifts Devotional by Ann Voskamp.  Actually, I think it's the last post that I did, so scroll on down and read it quick.  It's a lovely book and I'm really enjoying it. No, I still haven't finished it.  But the parts that I have read have really inspired me to try being more conscious of the gifts that God has given in my own life.  So since the whole thing started out as a challenge that Ann took, I decided I'd try it too.

On her website, she calls it the Joy Dare - because it is a dare to find joy in the gifts around you.  She's got some great [free] resources that I'll be using throughout the dare.  You can read more about it here.  She really does a better job explaining it than I do!  My favorite little freebie is the Joy Dare Calendar.  It goes through and tells you what to look for each day.  I think it'll be much easier to go through and find joys when you know what you're looking for!  (You can download it near the bottom of this page.)

So here's my problem.  I suck at New Year's Resolutions.  MOST people would take this dare as a resolution and start it on January 1.  Well I never get around to even setting a resolution (when I bother to make one) until somewhere around January 17.  Because I like to see what resolutions everyone else is making before picking and declaring my own.  Not that it's a competition.  No - because that's how I get the best ideas!  I can never come up with something resolution-worthy on my own, so I wait until I hear something good and then resolve to do that too.  So now, here near the end of January, I've resolved to find 1,000 gifts before the end of the year.

I had planned on starting February 1 and doing 3 a day and having just a few over 1,000 by the end of December.  Yes, I did the math in my head and it works out.  But then I found that adorable calendar of prompts and it starts in January.  So now I'm 29 days behind schedule.  Crap.  Well, I figured I would alter the dare a smidgen to fit it into my procrastinating schedule.  So I'm still going to start on February 1.  In order to come out to an even 1,000 some of the days have a prompt to find three things and others just prompt for one.  On the days that have one, I'll do one from January too, thereby completing all 1,000 in the year.  YAY!

Ok, now, my favorite part.  The journal.  I decided that I would actually physically write down my joys every day.  Mostly because that way a) I can keep them to myself if they are private and b) it will be easier to do right before bed than grab a computer and try to come up with some clever blog post about them.  Because let's face it, I'm not the most awesome at getting around to blogging on a regular basis.  I've got pictures from a trip to the botanical gardens, several Christmas celebrations, and Ellie's birthday that I need to post one of these days.  I'm not going to be blogging my joy list every single day.  BUT I do hope to do a weekly wrap-up on Thursdays (because I just had to do that blogger alliteration thing) to let you know a few of my joys from the week.  Nothing fancy, just another motivation to keep me going.

So anyway, I went to Target and thought I'd just get a cheapo little pocket calendar for the dare.  It's small, pre-dated, and cheap.  And then I walked into the journal aisle and found this beauty.  

And I couldn't leave it on the shelf.  So I shelled out much more money than I should have for a book of paper and brought it home.  I figured maybe if the journal is prettier I'll be more motivated to stick with it all year long.  Maybe?  Let's hope so.  Anyway, this was, again, before I bothered to look at the website and saw all the cute printables that you can get to make any plain old journal pretty.  (Side note: this whole thing has a super cute bird theme that I'm totally digging, so maybe that'll help me stick with it too!)  I tell you all of this so that if you decide you want to hop on board and take your own Joy Dare, first don't think that it's too late and you have to wait until next year.  And second, look for free things before you go to Target.  Because that is the place where budgets go to die.

So there you have it.  1 year - 1,000 gifts.  It seems like a lot.  But I'm really excited.  Will you join me in taking the Joy Dare?  If so, let me know and we can encourage each other to stick with it to the end!  I can't wait to see what happens!

REVIEW: One Thousand Gifts Devotional by Ann Voskamp

Z Blog Squad has reformatted and now they occasionally offer thematic materials where adult and children books along the same theme can be reviewed at the same time!  Super exciting that I have a chance to review an adult book or two in the mix with all the amazing kids' products that they offer!

The first such book is the One Thousand Gifts Devotional by Ann Voskamp.

(Side Note: We were supposed to receive a Berenstein Bears thankfulness book to go along with this one, but for one reason or another, we never did.  That's totally ok though because in the meantime, thanks to our church library, we discovered that Ellie is freaked out by those characters.  So she wouldn't have liked it and it wouldn't have been a fair review anyway.)

Evidently, Ms. Voskamp is a pretty popular Christian author.  I'd heard the name, but have never read any of her work before.  See, while I would *like* to be one of those moms who wakes up at the crack of dawn and gets in a good workout before sitting down with her tea and devotional time, I'm just not.  My time is quite limited (don't we all feel that way?!) and when I get a chance to read, I want it to be some good Christian fantasy or sci-fi or allegory.  Lewis or Tolkein or Dekker.  Something with a different world in which I can immerse myself and forget about the laundry that needs done or peeling stickers off the kitchen floor.  But I realized this year that I need some more devotional goodness in my life, so I've been working on reading through this book.  I received it around thanksgiving and have just now read enough to feel like I can give it a genuine review.

I really, really like it.  First of all, it's so pretty!  I know what they say, but a good cover seriously does help me pick up a book and give it a go.  And I like that, since this is devotional style, it has a nice little ribbon bookmark, so I don't have to ugly it up with the post-it notes I usually use.  So bonus points for aesthetics.

Now, content.  Ann's (I don't think she'd mind if I called her by her first name) writing style is rather unique and took a few chapters to get used to.  At first I wasn't sure how to describe it, but then I heard someone else call it poetic and I think that's absolutely true.  Her metaphors and similes are large and in great detail.  Sometimes, I think that can distract people from the point that she's trying to make.  But I kind of like it.  Like I said, it takes some getting used to, so if you pick up this book, don't allow yourself to give up on it until you're at least half-way through.  At that point, if you really aren't getting anything out of it, then this writing style just might not be for you and I'd suggest you investigate a different author.  Poetic language like this really isn't suitable for everyone, but it seems to work beautifully for me.

And the points she makes ring quite true.  She's a self-proclaimed mother of 'half a dozen kids,' so many of her observations are derived from interactions with her children.  As a mom, that really drives points home for me.  But I think that even non-moms - heck, even MEN - could relate a lot to what she is saying.  The devotional is based off of her book One Thousand Gifts.  I *think* I heard her do an interview on the radio last spring where she talked about that book, but try as I might I cannot find it anywhere.  I can't even remember which radio station it was.  Anyway... the backstory of both books is that a friend dared her to count 1,000 gifts from God.  The books chronicle her journey of basically re-programming her mind and heart to see the gifts and graces in every day life and live with more gratitude.  This is something I honestly think we could all work on.  

This devotional book contains 60 devotions, each one ending with a brief prayer starter and room for notes.  Then at the back of the book are pages full of lines.  One thousand lines to be exact.  A space to list your own one-thousand gifts.  The devotional in itself is Ann's personal journey, shared with you as an encouragement to undergo the same challenge and see how it might change you.  

I haven't finished the book yet.  Like I said, time is limited, and these things cannot be digested as easily as a fantasy world.  This is real life - and sometimes you need to close the book and sit with what you've read for a while  before continuing.  So I don't know how it ends.  Well, I do.  I can tell you already.  Without evening finishing it, I can tell you it ends well.  It ends with beauty and grace and a new way of living and loving the gifts in our everyday lives.

So if you've got a little Christmas money left and don't know what to spend it on, might I recommend picking up this devotional book?  I really do think it'll be worth it.  Already, I have noticed little changes in my mind and heart that lead me to believe this is changing me for the better.  For example, last weekend we threw two parties in two days at our home.  And if that weren't stressful enough, Andy called me down on Friday and let me know that the washer had quit draining water.  My very first thought?  "Thank God - we JUST got all the laundry done!"  I immediately thought of something positive rather than negative.  That's progress, my friend.  And, as I said, I think it's progress we can all stand to make.  

I'm going to be taking the One Thousand Gifts challenge in 2015 - check back soon for more information on why I decided, what I hope to gain, and how I'll be doing it!

Disclaimer: Zondervan provided me with a free copy of this book for reviewing purposes, but the opinions I've presented are 100% my own.