...and it has made all the difference

Early morning waking with an adorable baby in my arms. Daddy is off to work and Grady smiles large. I put him back to bed, and he cries, but soon settles. I go down and coffee is waiting because Jeremy and the big guys have left for school.

The morning's quiet lingers for a while. I cherish these quiet times when I get to turn over the soil in my heart as I read and pray. I don't always like what comes to the surface. Those rocks are still there, but He is so good to point them out to me. He will never leave us or forsake us.


Girls playing happily together for quite some time

Bannon's "Princess of the Golden Roof" from yes, Grimm's Fairy Tales

It was Thanksgiving of 2009 that I felt compelled to start with the Holy Experience Gratitude Community. I don't know all the reasons why, I didn't even regularly read her blog. I think I took Ann Voskamp's word that it had make a remarkable change in her life. I needed changing. (I still do! :) ) So, I sat and put some of my thankful thoughts out on my blog. And slowly over time, as I've taken the time to type out these expressions of "Thank you Lord," from my heart, I've felt heart-strings tie, from my heart and gaze, to His. I wondered if I was making myself look silly by posting some of the things I did.

But it is changing me. How as I've said, and as the author says in her book, my sight is lifting up off of my struggles and insecurities and fears, and my sight looks from a view that reminds me that I am loved, and like Ann Voskamp says, "It's all Grace."

I just wanted to add here that I'm not trying to say this has been the only source of my growth, but it has been a significant heart activity I've been doing.

I'm doing the book study starting this Sunday. I'm so looking forward it.