Gifts

I am a HUGE fan of Ann Voskamp.  I loved her book, 1000 Gifts, and read her blog daily ... that woman has a way with words.  She came and spoke at our church this past summer and through her encouragement, we "adpoted" a Compassion child ... Enoc is from Mexico and is 11 days younger than Graham ... we write to him, send pictures, and really talk about and pray for him often.  Anyway, she has this "Monthly Joy Dare" on her blog at the beginning of each month, and I've been printing them out to put on our fridge.  Each day, you are supposed to find 3 gifts ... she gives some prompting (which has also been a great vocabulary lesson).  It has been really fun to do after we say our blessing ... I love what comes out of their mouths!!  A few days ago, it said to find 3 gifts undervalued, and after explaining what undervalued means, Carter shouts out "Mommy."  I looked at him and said, "Amen, son." :)    I also loved it when it said unexpected, and Graham said, "having twin brothers."  Thanks to Ann, I love this idea of pointing my boys into continually choosing joy and gratitude.  A few of my favorite quotes of hers:

"Patience in the moment only comes from gratefulness for the moment"

"Only self can kill joy.  Why am I doing this to me?"

"One of life's biggest kill joy is expectations"

"If you don't fight for joy, it's your children who lose"

"Joy, it comes not in the gaining but in the giving, not in being someone but in being a sacrifice, not in laying up treasures, but in laying down self."

There is SO much joy and SO many gifts in my life, I just really need and want to rewire my brain to think this way instead of turning first to frustration throughout the craziness of my daily life.  I also really want to teach my boys to first choose gratitude instead of complaining.

Here is the link, since my pic is blurry:  http://www.aholyexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/OctoberJoyDare.pdf