Ann Voskamp is a beautiful soul. She is an incredible author, dedicated wife/mother, and a heart who has fallen in love with Jesus. Her best-selling book ONE THOUSAND GIFTS: A DARE TO LIVE FULLY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE is an invite, a quest, and a desire to live fully amidst the craziness, chaos, and complexity of life.
[As a child, her sister was crushed under a truck in front of her and her mother. Consequently, her mother checked herself into a psychiatric hospital and her father couldn’t find God. As an adult, she stood beside her brother-in-law as he buried his first two sons. Voskamp is a wife and mother who does not grin through the pain but battles to believe that in God is joy, and that there are as many gifts amid the grittiness of life as in the moments of celebration.
- Where is joy in the midst of cruelty and chaos, duties and despair?
- How does one slow down enough for the soul and God to live in synch?
- How in the world do we learn to find God and live fully?
The laundry keeps piling up, dishes never end, kids fight and people die. But regardless of circumstances, the dare of the “gift list” shows Voskamp a way to live even through the dullness and hurts of life. Through the aches and triumphs, she finally sees what she’s been missing, something that so many women can’t seem to find in their everyday lives. ] -excerpt from onethousandgifts.com
What I love about Ann is her invite to you and I to seek out the beauty and blessings of each day. This doesn’t mean that you and I will become immune to troubles and challenges. What it does mean is that troubles and challenges no longer become the lens we view life through; rather they are a vessel that more often than not hold the most precious moments and miracles.
Here’s to YOU. Here’s to me. Here’s to life and the #1000gifts (and beyond) that are waiting for us to discover.
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