A Word To Live By, And Die By // One Thousand Gifts // Chapter Two Reflections

 It's about giving thanks, finding grace and learning to experience true joy.


Ann Voskamp's words from chapter two gave me much to mull over and ponder in my mind and heart this week. In fact, this chapter gave me so much to mull over that I'm not even so sure that I have my bearings yet. As in, I don't really know what to say this week. 

Here are a few things I do know though...

This one small word, eucharisteo, encompasses and holds so very much. Eucharisteo itself is made up of blessed fragments of grace and joy and thanksgiving

Yes, I want to live. I want to live a life that is thankful. A life that seeks out grace in every moment. A life that experiences true joy on a daily basis out of a heart that is thankful, not because I got everything I ever desired, but because I find myself truly thankful for every gift that has been so graciously given to me.

Speaking of gifts... I've recently come to the realization that gifts don't always come in pretty packages (like when Ann found out she had cancer) and they don't always bring joy with them either. No. Sometimes the gifts that God gives to us are meant to try us, to test us, to strengthen us. They are the unexpected and the unwanted often times. But these are the same gifts that give to us so greatly. These are the gifts that shape us into who we will become, into who we are becoming every day.

God is the Ultimate Giver. 

For He alone brings us joy and grace and salvation.

Through Salvation we find Grace. 

And through Giving Thanks we find True Joy.

And that is where I am at right now. I have been given unwanted and wanted and hoped for gifts throughout the last twenty-three years of my life, and I know that while they've all been given to me to shape my perspectives on life and to better myself and my future I am not always thankful for them when I should be. 


"The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live....He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything." - Albert Schweitzer

And so I am going to decide this week to thank Him for all the gifts He so greatly gives, wanted and unwanted and hoped for. Because I want to live that thankful life, full of grace and salvation and joy...at work, at home, everywhere. Because I want to bring Him glory. Because I want to live that emptier, fuller life, a life that is driven by one single small word that means this world and the next. 

Ann Voskamp so lovingly penned the words you see pictured below in the front of my book when I first met her. I did not truly and fully begin to understand what those three simple words met until just right this very moment... 


"Eucharisteo, the Greek word with the hard meaning and the harder meaning to live...this is the only way from empty to full." 
{ OTG pg. 40/41 }

// / // 

 I'm reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp for the next little while alongside Annie & Margaret. Would you like to join The Book Club too?

7 comments:

  1. I need to get hold of this book.... :)

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    1. Yes, you really should, Sarah Michelle! Family Christian has One Thousand Gifts for 50% off right now through September 27th! ;-)

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    2. Ooo! I like 50% off. haha. :) I will make a trip to the store soon then!

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  2. I felt the same way about this chapter. When I was reading it, I kept thinking in my head what I wanted to say on my post. I had so many different things. There was no way I could say it all! I love knowing about that word, Eucharisteo now. Learning about the original language of the Bible really fascinates me and helps make sense of things.

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  3. This is such a hard decision to make! To decide to give thanks even when it's difficult, even when the gifts are those hoped for and prayed over. Love your thoughts, Sarah!

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  4. ps. when did you meet ann voskamp?!

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  5. I met Ann Voskamp at the She Speaks 2011 Conference. ;)

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