Learn to find and play the role God wants most for you to play, not the ones you feel pressured into playing for the sake of others or even our sense of accomplishment and worth.
Most of us spend a lot of our lives figuring out when to say yes and when to say no. How to manage our time, reduce stress, do our best for our families, find a little space for "me". But we don't find space for our souls until we learn to step past the yes and no of daily decisions and seek a third option: the best yes.
The best yes is the choice that shapes all our other choices. Based on seven years of ground-breaking research and hundreds of interviews, I Thought It Was Just Me shines a long-overdue light on an important truth: Our imperfections are what connect us to each other and to our humanity. Our vulnerabilities are not weaknesses; they are powerful reminders to keep our hearts and minds open to the reality that we're all in this together.
It-girl Betty White delivers a hilarious, slyly profound take on love, life, celebrity, and everything in between. Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity.
If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything By: Betty White.
In an era where we seem to be increasingly divided along racial lines, many are hesitant to step into the gap, fearful of saying or doing the wrong thing. At times the silence, particularly within the church, seems deafening. But change begins with an honest conversation among a group of Christians willing to give a voice to unspoken hurts, hidden fears, and mounting tensions. These ongoing dialogues have formed the foundation of a global movement called Be the Bridge.
In this perspective-shifting book, founder Latasha Morrison shows how you can participate in this incredible work. By: Latasha Morrison , and others. More than 1. What if joy is possible right where you are? New York Times best-selling author Ann Voskamp invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative journey of chronicling God's gifts.
How can you find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and even the death of loved ones? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes even dark?
How is God even here? God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is the holiest ground, the glory passing by. In the blackest, God is closest, at work, forging his perfect and right will.
In One Thousand Gifts , Ann Voskamp invites you to discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings deep and lasting joy. It's only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted Come to feel and know the impossible right down in your bones: you are wildly loved by God.
As Ann invites you into her own beautiful, heart-aching moments of amazing grace, she gently teaches you how to:. Leave pride, fear, and control behind, and abandon yourself to the God who overflows your cup.
I requested this book to be on Audible. Don't know if my request is the reason it's here, but I'm so grateful they got it so fast. I've known about it for nearly two months, and anxiously waited for it to be released in hardback.
Couldn't stand the wait and bought it on Kindle, read it in one day, then immediately started over, so I can savor every drop. I pre-ordered 6 copies to share, and I'll be ordering 10 more this weekend. I cannot get enough of this book. The day it was released, it was 12 on the Amazon bestseller list, and now, 10 days later, it has over 5 star reviews. This book cannot adequately be described; it truly must be experienced. It teaches how learning to accept all of the events in our lives with gratitude brings God's spirit to us and us closer to Him.
Do yourself a BIG favor and get this book. You can thank me later. If you could sum up One Thousand Gifts in three words, what would they be? Deep, transforming, honest. What did you like best about this story? The journey of transformation. Which character — as performed by Ann Voskamp — was your favorite? Ann, the main character. Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry? I cried many times because of the tragedy and post traumatic effects on the author, and the eventual victory and triumph was truly inspiring.
The book was beautifully written and thoughtfully narrated, and the "project" was meticulously undertaken. His life. An endless list.
These three things: the seeing, the receiving, the thanking…will be the water that will, in turn, bear fruit. The fruit of Abundant, Overflowing Life. Jesus-Life that will splash onto all those around me. I see my need for Him more today than the day He came to live in me as a tiny little girl. Thank you Jesus for opening my eyes wider and wider to my need for you. And Ann? Thank you for pointing us all back to Him. In the darkest of nights, His light in you shines so brightly.
Dan I think this book may finally be the one. I believe in God. I have faith in a higher power who is all knowing and all loving and knows specifically my needs, hopes and desires. I believe that to a point would be a better statement. I have to go through another crisis? Done my share? The loss of family, first through my purposeful pulling away from my parents who proved too toxic to continue to include in my life, then the loss of my sister to cancer.
Watching her suffer and wither away for 5 years. Through two traumatic pregnancies. A difficult marriage that has evolved but leaves me wanting more days than not?
Now, in the present day…. I have to go through more? I need to find away beyond this. And just based on the first chapter, I may have found my first step to getting there.
Oh Joy. I stopped just now and prayed for you. With you in this journey, Becky. I want to acknowledge these are my roadblocks to my faith growing the way I want it to. The way I need it to. And for Becky, loving so well. As I read chapter one I gasped …. As her body was crushed so were the dreams of those left behind?
I was thinking — why God? Then you asked the question? Where does your story start? That is hard for me to tell. Maybe after reading this book I will be able to take a hurtful moment and turn it into joy.
Could the darkness really be what I needed to jolt me awake? Especially at such a young age. That is were my story begins… where the trauma jolted my memory awake and where I first remember searching for my way back to a seemingly indifferent God. It is possible, wildly. I have been walking through a valley the last 5 years or so — nothing like the pains and tragedies in the Chapter — but difficult and challenging none the less.
One of the hardest periods of my 40yr-old life thus far. So I thought. Thanks, gilrs for doing this video series, it helps solidify the words in the book! Thank you for the work you are doing here. Like many of you, I also want to learn to always trust God in any circumstance, and to see the gratitude rather than resentment in any situation. As a result, my faith will grow. In doing this, I hope and pray that others will notice my new-found peace and I can lead them to the Lord by my example.
This is what stood out to me the most in this first chapter. Experiencing the dark makes me so much more aware of the light! I was diagnosed with a chronic illness seven years ago and for the first two years after the diagnosis I was one very bitter person. I can honestly say that life was DARK,.. Through a series of events, which I now understand that God orchestrated, I began to see that it was for HIS glory that I was suffering.
Just as Ann pointed out…every day there was a choice. I could live for His glory and accept it as a gift…even a sacrifice I could lift up to Him, or I could continue to be bitter. What Ann said about allowing the holes in life to become see-through-to-God-places resonates with me, especially when I consider that I was never able to see God or understand Him or know Him until I lost everything and was completely helpless to fix my own pain—and even then I had to make a choice to see.
And once I made the first step toward that choice God completely took over and dazzled me. I know that I have shirked my growth-responsibility because of my own deep doubts and fears that if I do my part and seek His face, he may still not reveal Himself to me, even though Scripture promises that HE WILL. This book. Big stuff. I know these events have put a wall between God and I.
I long to be able to work through this to have a closer relationship with him so I can be more effective in sharing my testimony as my ministry. I thought this book would be a quick read, one I could read just before bed. Thank you for all the ways You are never going to let her go… Praying with you tonight, Tracy. The book is a gift to the body, and I am thankful for the videos to go along with it. This book has laid me out and opened up something that i hadnt fully realized. However painful it may be, I will be working at counting it as gift.
I am undone. I love this book and the simple truths that Ann has shared. I think sometimes Happiness and Joy are confused. For me, happiness is a surface reaction whereas joy is way to live. I believe that sometimes bad things are results of accidents, circumstances, choices and just living through this uncertain and crazy life.
I believe that God grieves with us and His heart breaks with our pain. However, the joy comes from the assurance that He is faithful to us and walks through those valleys with us, as well. Maybe we are just supposed to be thankful to God for holding us in HIs love. Thank you, Ann, for your courage in writing this book and sharing these truths. Your heart is beautiful. And thank you, Angie and Jessica for this format. I have no trouble believing that God is all-powerful or that God is all-knowing.
My story is different, but the result is the same. My heart feels worn and tired…. How was I supposed to count this as joy?
How will THIS work out for good? How do I wake up to joy and grace and beauty and all that is the fullest life when I must stay numb to losses and crushed dreams and all that empties me out?
I must begin with a thank you. This first chapter speaks to me in so many ways. I meditate and pray over those words, searching for gratitude in my ingratitude and it brings me such comfort and opens my mind to possibilities to know that I am not the storyteller…never was and never will be.
And the One writing the story is good and is perfect and knows the way the story should end. And I really do believe that it is out of darkness that we are able to see the light and appreciate its splendor. I just sat down with my book, a cup of tea, and a lit candle to watch the first video. Thank you all. I loved it. The moment my daughter died I was changed forever.
That was Sept 22, I had her for three weeks. I had no belief system. My family did not go to church. For ten years I fought with God, asking every question, every why. I began my journey dry-eyed for 6 months, then the dam broke and I experienced brokenness in ways that still send shivers through me. I sought God. I fought God. God waited for me to finish and be still. My every thought tested, listened to, my heart broken through and through to the very end of my horizon.
Grief, anger, distrust, ridicule, blame, hypocrisy. I did not spare Him one ounce of my humanness. But God in his gentleness and patience can break through our toughest, loudest cries of pain and grief. He allows us to feel it all, and when my last sobs heaved quiet, He came to me in silence. My fight was over and He was there to hold me, teach me and love me back into fullness of heart. That was I was so in the dark and death was so final, but his breath, his pneuma brought me new life and healing.
I am now resting in his green pastures, listening to his teachings. What if we lived as if our time was borrowed and we were delighted in the simple, the ordinary? We would be thankful. God is good. May God bless this journey together as an open window of fresh air so we may breathe deep. This book, these words, are a life-changing dare and invitation. I stood behind the camera for these videos and it was a holy place of grace. He means to rename us—to returns us to our true names, our truest selves.
He means to heal our soul holes. YOU are a gift. My husband died suddenly 3 years ago, leaving my 6 children and me totally destroyed … for a while. My seed?
Starting my own gratitude list. The water: Spending time with God and in His word every day so that I continue to grow closer to him and learn to choose gratitude easier. The bloom? I really am starting to see more in each moment and have felt time slowing down ….
Have a great week, Everyone!! Choose to say yes to what He freely gives. Could I live that—the choice to open the hands to freely receive whatever God gives? Water: saying Yes daily by practicing gratitude and prayer in the Happy and the Hard, and recognizing that every breath of every day is pure Gift. As Jessica points out in the video, everyone has a story. Some of the chapters in my life story read like a fairy tale frolic in flowery meadows, and some are like walking barefoot over shards of glass.
If it had been up to me, I would have left those painful chapters out, but as I look back over my life, I realize they truly are gifts. Good gifts from a good God who never calls us to suffer without purpose. When our son Jacob was fifteen he nearly drowned. He was under water for at least ten minutes and it took another twenty minutes of CPR before he breathed.
Doctors told us he would either die or remain vegetative for the rest of his life. He is good. Thank you so much, Angie and Jessica, for hosting this discussion. Her exquisite book is part of my journey now, a beautiful ripple among many.
I was thinking the same thing as you that there are just too many comments and people involved for everyone to connect to each other BUT I believe God directs us to those that we need to be connected to. Reading your comment here I went to you blog and after just reading a bit over there I have been blessed. I do believe things happen the way God plans, and those things are for my good…. I want to, as Ann said, have gratitude be my default mode, instead of first feeling resentment and only slowly and painfully working my way around to the thanks.
I believe as I continue to count His gifts and choose to see all as a gift, the fruit will be a joy-filled life in which others see more of Jesus in me. But He does. I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, and three days later my husband and son also accepted Jesus… three weeks later our son died in an accident. Water: I have been on a sabbatical of sorts this past year or so… when I try to write, the words are not there.
Perhaps the pen needs to be emptied out before it can be filled with His story… His words? Water: I need continual communion with God through thanksgiving and His Word ever before me so that I can consistently live the fullest life rather than only in snatches.
I purchase One Thousand Gifts to read on kindle on my iPad. It is such an amazing book that I had to purchase it to hold it in my hands…. Thank you so much Ann for sharing this. Where to begin?
Gratitude would be an appropriate place, no? Thank you God for blessing Ann with an ability to put into words what helps to heal so many. Thank you Angie and Jessica for Bloom. And thank you for the video, it is a delicious dessert added to an already filling feast. Thank you for sharing this truth, Ann. Thank you Ann for sharing your story. Clearly, we are all walking around in various states of woundedness. No one comes through life unscathed.
But it helps to hear the testimony of those who have been and are being healed. It births hope in us when we are reminded that we are not alone, that God really does love us and that he has filled our life with gifts too numerous to count. I am trying to submit to God, through heartache and pain. My copy of the book arrived less than a week ago, and I have now read the first chapter … not once, but twice. My husband and I have experienced a good share of hard things in our almost years of marriage.
Not as hard of things as many all over the world live with, but still, they have been things that came unexpectedly, and gave us so much pain as we went through them. But as we look back, it has been those hard times of life that have led us to a deep place of joy and intimacy with God. And that, I think, is why God allows these times … to bring us to the best place.
I could so identify with the doubt and the struggle that Ann experienced, but then longed for the faith and grace that her brother in law and wife exhibited. The sentences on pg. But an act allowed by God? In my own life and situations I have pondered this thought. There have been many days when I think that I could write my life story differently in the small and big things but I am really challenged through this first chapter to fully let God write my story.
And praise Him for the way He is writing it. Each day. I read the first chapter and just cried! I went straight to my kids and smelled their hair and just hugged them. Getting this book as a gift was a blessing! Thank you for sharing this book! I can not wait to order it and read it! Exactly what I need at this chapter in my own life! The discription or comparison with Manna hit me spirit head on, I think about the Israelites and how they ate of the Manna, the what is it for 40 years… How I have lived as if He has stole what I thought was rightfully mine….
Thank you…. I am really excited to participate in this online book study. What a challenge to live fully right where you are in the day to day things, especially if you have gone through some significant suffering as I have over the last while. But God is faithful and loves us so. I was so touched by the trailer video for this book…that I just knew I needed to order it! I read the first chapter and watched the video. I am so challenged by what Ann has written!
I look at my own life…. A little over a year later, my father took his own life. A dark place…a dark time in my life. I had been a Christian for many, many years by the time these things happened. Still……it changes a person. I am since remarried and my current husband had lost his job of 22 yrs. He was unemployed for 16 months. Even though God has provided, I am afraid.
I grip tighter to what we have. It hurts. I often find myself questioning God. I know His character is loving and just…….
We hunger for something more, something other. They are painful to me. They are so true…. God speaks to me, through her. I long to live my life with gratitude. I MUST learn to live my life with gratitude. Reading through the comments here … just wanted to stop and say I was saddened by all that you have gone through. And I pray that God will lovingly guide you in your desire to live a life of gratitude … your heart is there.
May this book be a comfort and help to you … and to all of us. So grateful to be reading it, as I have much to learn, as well …. This video discussion truly invites me into this community. Thank you for allowing me to join you all in this experience of growth. Thank you, thank you SO much for these videos! They are truly ministering to me!
Love you ladies! This chapter was very gripping for me. I am so cynical. I have craved their happiness and their having it all together, thinking that those things were beyond my reach despite being a Christian. But to start the chapter with this pain.
Ann is not coming to us as someone who has her life all together, but as someone who sympathizes with our pain. She is one of us. It is so encouraging to see her look to the Lord with her questions and the Lord illuminating His Word to her as He has promised to do for all that look to Him. There are some traumatic areas of my life that I have accepted the Lord bringing into my life and I can see how they were worked for good.
But there are other areas in my life, that I still carry with me: the betrayal of one close to me, wounds from witnessing sexual abuse, insecurity from being taunted at school—it is harder to see these and receive them as from the Lord.
To do so would cause me to release the ones who wounded me from their debt to me. This chapter caused me to address my pain and see it as a seed. Maybe this is the place where my fears, distrust, and insecurity come from? So, I am journeying with dearest Ann. I look to the Lord expectantly to see how even all this is grace. I truly cannot put this book down. Thank you, Ann, for writing and sharing your heart…your life moments with us. As I sat here watching, and crying right along with you, I am reminded of the dark in my life.
The dark that was. And, yes, the dark that still appears at times. However, He gives us the light we need…at just the right times. His times. I will never forget the day and many, many, many days that followed when He led me towards the light, through sweet baby Audrey Caroline. Because of Audrey. Because of HIM! Praise the Lord, for He is good.
One thing I got from the first chapter was only sort of related. I was reminded of Job and how he said we should take both the good and the bad from God. We might not see why at first but eventually something good will come from what He allowed to happen. And that bothers me. I still have to watch the video so I might have more later, I only had time to read the post while small children napped and played. What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long - and sometimes even dark?
How is God even here? In One Thousand Gifts , Ann invites you to discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings you deep and lasting joy.
It''s only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we''ve always wanted. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved - by God.
Let Ann''s beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive.
Come live the best dare of all! For extended study into the One Thousand Gifts message, Ann has also created the One Thousand Gifts video study and study guide, a One Thousand Gifts devotional, and a special gift edition. This title is also available in Spanish, Millar de Obsequios. January 26, What if joy is always, always, always possible, right where you are?
Dare you to live fully. Dare you to joy! How do you always find joy? The powerful tools to genuinely change the attitude of your family! The profound and beautiful way to personally transform your days…. Check your inbox soon for your Free Goodies! So many writers of faith do not do the hard work of literary incarnation: expressing spiritual truth in the material world of daily life.
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