Gifts

Well, Spring Break is here!! Many of my friends are gone on mini-vacations to the beach, the mountains, Las Vegas and so forth. Sweet man needed my help at our farm for a couple of days as he has been working himself to death and just needed another set of hands for a few days. He and my mama also decided that they want to try their hand at gardening so he plowed us up a spot. A HUGE SPOT! Mama keeps saying we just want an eating garden and I look at the size of it and think she must be planning on the entire parish eating from it. But.......a gardener I am becoming. I was not too thrilled about it at first but I have had the most fun the last couple of days. I love being at the farm with sweet man. No phones, no interruptions. And seeing as how my spring break started out with temps in the 40's I didn't mind at all not being somewhere else.

I am reading the most amazing book. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. She is a blogger I follow and am in awe of her writing style and her photographs. She is a delight to read. Anyway, her book is about gratitude. She shares about some personal tragedies in her life that led to a crisis of faith for her and then how she came to view Christ. She shares how the first sin committed was really a sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve had everything they could want, yet they desired what they could not have. Can't we relate? Instead of contentment in our circumstances we seek what we have not. Ann goes on to discuss how she began to study gratitude and thankfulness in the Bible and how even Christ gave thanks before going to the Cross. I could write on and on about what she says, but I will rather encourage you to read it for yourself. You will not be disappointed. One thousand gifts is the name of the list she created for things she was grateful for.

As I spent my days at the farm I began to think of the things I am thankful for. Not the big things like family, health and so on, but the little gifts God has placed in my life that are just as worthy of giving Him thanks for.

So thankful for the land He has allowed us to have and to garden on and all the other things we have planned.

Thankful for children who will come and share in this with us. Even one who doesn't care for vegetables that much! :-)

A baby girl who hopefully will see some satisfaction from the fruit of our efforts. And for some special time she and her daddy got to have together.

Grateful for the opportunity to watch things grow. I couldn't help but think about my grandparents and sweet man's grandparents whose lives were dependent on their crops. I am jealous for the kind of faith that created in them. All of our grandparents were fine, devoted, CONTENT people in Christ. Theirs is the kind of faith I desire for myself and my children.

So many times I fail to thank God for His creation. I was struck over and over by the greenness and freshness of everything this week. Beautiful. Verdant.

Thankful for the gifts in the most unassuming places. My mama went crazy when we saw these wild azaleas growing by the creek bed.

Equally as excited when we saw this dogwood. Easter is coming!

How beautiful the colors against the green. What an artist our Lord is.

The sound in the woods of the wind whispering through the trees is beautiful and comforting all at the same time. I could sit out there for hours just listening.

This tree made me think of what our lives must be like. Bent by the harshness of the world but still standing and producing fruit.

I am having a wonderful break. Filled with simplicity and reassessing. Funny how the older I get the more joy is found in the simple things in life. Hope you are having a blessed week and I challenge you to seek out the areas in your life that you can give thanks to our Gracious Savior.

Blessings,

Michelle