Ann Voskamp is #1 on My List of 1,000 Gifts

"God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy." That's Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts in a nutshell.

The farmer's wife and mother of six didn't want to die before she'd fully lived. She wasn't physically ill; yet sickened nonetheless by anxiety, grief, and the gnawing of not enough: "But, someone, please give me--who is born again but still so much in need of being born anew--give me the details of how to live in the waiting cocoon before forever begins?"

That someone was Christ, who modeled the answer Ann, and all of us, is searching for: thanksgiving.

I don't know when I've received so many insights from one book; not just beautifully written thoughts, but true spiritual food:

The only place we need see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now. (For this woman afflicted with bouts of wanderlust to heavenly places on earth, this sentence was the equivalent of Jesus saying to Peter, "Do you love me?")

We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks.

Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace.

A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit. (Erasmus)

To name a thing (thanking God for His blessings), in other words, is to bless God for it and in it.

If you read only one book in 2012, make it One Thousand Gifts. If you make only one resolution in 2012, make it the heartbeat of One Thousand Gifts: becoming aware of God's good gifts, naming them, and thanking Him for them.

I bought a journal today. Ann said it took her almost four weeks to record 1,000 good things God had given her. Four weeks!! At first I was astounded by her light speed quickness in reaching the milestone. But then I remembered there are angels in heaven whose only job is to continually praise God. He is that worthy, that good. What would happen if I marshalled my five senses, and then responded to the outpouring of information? Would I be like the angels, unable to stop praising God because of this focused awareness? My own humanity would certainly prevent such a thing...but I want to love God, Who first loved me, by living a life of thankfulness.

How long will it take me to recognize, name, and thank God for 1,000 of His gifts to me? I don't know. I'm not going to rush to get there. Instead, I'll savor the gifts, but especially the Giver of all good things.

What's the first thing on my One Thousand Gifts list?

Ann Voskamp, of course!