In 1897, Johnson Oatman Jr. wrote the words to a simple yet profound hymn. It was written for young people to help them learn what is really worth counting and also to remember who can be counted on. In particular, Johnson wanted people to learn that they should count their blessings when times were hard. His song begins with these words:
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
My daughter Hope sits down to play a hymn on the piano. She keeps the rhythm of the song, she keeps harmony, by doing nothing less than counting – that is what she does. She counts. The music teacher of a friend once said this to his students about how to keep the right beat of a song: “When you are a musician and you stop counting, it’s like running around in the forest, on the edge of a cliff, in the dark, without a flashlight.”
Without counting, the song loses harmony.
And without counting blessings, our lives lose the song, the light – the beat of God’s heart.
There is transformative power in counting our blessings and naming the good gifts of God – because we encounter the power of God Himself in our lives. If you want to discover the rhythms of grace, joy, and true faithfulness, count the gifts God has given and the ones He is giving you even at this moment.
Write them down, express them in words, notice them, and celebrate each one. Start with ten, then take off your shoes and count ten more gifts. Now you have twenty. Keep going: a hundred gifts, two hundred, and you will discover there are even more. When you get to a thousand gifts, you will be getting warmed up.
How long will it take to list all the gifts God has given you? Let’s start together and continue counting for the rest of our lives…and forever. Who wants to miss the beat of His heart?
You are warmly invited to come to the farm: One Thousand Gifts: a Small Group DVD Study and the Study Guide for the 5 sessions: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
We prayed hard and we thought of the weary mama at the sink and the man who keeps working hard and rarely picks up a book, thought of the circle of friends who want to go deep with Jesus and find real joy together, and the community of neighbors who might gather around a project of counting 1000 Gifts and change their whole street —
We thought of you — and prayed God could somehow use the weak and broken anyway to share this message that has changed our lives — and we threw open the door for you.
Gather up some friends and come? It might just change everything….
And I’ll make bread right here in the kitchen…and the kids will jump on the trampoline…
And we’ll open God’s Word and wander through the cemetery and kneel at Aimee’s and ask the hard questions … and I pray God leads us deeper into authentic, life-giving joy in Him.
Ann Voskamp
Sessions Include:
Introduction: Learning to Count
Attitude of Gratitude
Grace in the Moment
All is Grace
Trust: the Bridge to Joy
Empty to Fill
Start Counting:
Video Session One
Study Guide Session One: http://www.scribd.com/doc/116825846/One-Thousand-Gifts-Session-One
Options Include:
One Thousand Gifts resources are available in the Women of Faith store in many formats – Book, Study Guide, DVD Study, and Study Guide with DVD
http://store.womenoffaith.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=%22one+thousand+gifts%22&order=relevance&dir=desc
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