3 Gifts Nailed together

Count 1000 Giifts - April 6

My three gifts for today are all about the cross and what Jesus Christ did for us more that 2000 years ago:

# 289
Genesis 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

# 290

Deuteronomy 21:23  His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that your land be not defiled, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

# 291

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

And for the "3 Gifts Surprisingly Found" of April 3:

# 280 Hand and foot prints from Little one

I found them while packing

The blue ones are from when he was 1 months old, July 2008.  The purple foot print was from when he was 3 years and 8 months, 29 February 2012.  This is for our Leap Year Time Capsule, as we do one for the whole year.  Both our children were born in leap years - June 2004 and June 2008 and I wanted to add their newborn stuff in the capsule.

# 281  A friendship renewed

# 282  Love restored

PS: I have decided not to share every gift / gratitude here but just some of them.  I also do not follow the guidelines as sometimes I do not have the time, or just can't find that gift but have seen many others in that day.  I do keep a list on the computer and also have a gratitude journal in my handbag.

3 Gifts White

Count 1000 Gifts for April 2

# 277 

The white rose

that set me on this road

smelled so ...

sweet; heavenly;

like a rose should

# 278

Sharing a bowl of white popcorn

with my children

a healthy snack

 # 279

White paper,

to start a new drawing,

possibilities.

3 Gifts Round

Count 1000 Gifts for April 1

# 274

The last of my tomatoes.  I see them every day when I go outdoors.

A gift from God to eat.

Something that I had part in,

even if it was only in the planning

and sowing, watering...

and then eating.

# 275

This plant, the leaves form a circle - round.

A gift from nature to enjoy,

with my eyes.

# 276

A round melon

A gift from a friend.

To enjoy and share with friends.

Little one asked for a picnic with his friends.

That means teatime and playtime.

And the melon was for sharing.

Count 1000 Gifts in 2012

Yesterday I saw this on Facebook.

At first I did not really think about this until I found a white iceberg rose in our garden with heavenly smell.  Then I though back to the challenge and decided to see if I can find more white gifts.

And that brought me back to April 1.  Always a very special day in my life.  On this day 5 years ago my dad passed away, went from this earthly tent to the heavenly house of our Heavenly Father.  Six weeks before his death God led me to the book "Prison to Praise" by Merlin Carothers .  I then started to praise God for my fathers health and healing.  And at the end of my praise-time I praised very softly and with a heavy heart, for his death. It was not something I wanted to do, but felt led to.

Wow, I did not realise what that little praise-prayer would do for me, what it would mean.  There was no sting in my fathers death 6 weeks later.  We had such a lovely farewell on the Saturday, 31 March 2007.

All 4 children came from different directions,  long distances, to say goodbye and around 5pm we all were around his bed, and I believe this gave my dad peace to go home.  He died the next morning, Sunday April 1, 2007.  I missed him, still do, but that pain of loss, of death was not so intense.

I learned a valuable lesson then, but sometimes still miss the point.  So, I want to look around me, in me, in my house, to see the blessings, the gifts, the praise-worthy things and concentrate on them.

I do not want to put pressure on myself so wont blog every day but try to keep the list.  And I will go back and find the treasures, the gifts of the first three months of the year.  So for April 1, I'll start with Gift #274 - 276 - in the next post.

Manufacturing Cuteness

The cuties I had in recent years.

 Snoetsie and Jenny

 Miekie

A guitar: a wonderful new world

A new guitar and a new world opened up.

So he strummed, then asked:

"Where does the sound box store the notes?

Where are the sounds inside?" 

And to his brother:

"It's like a piano, just a bit different."

Discovery

This morning Little One was my companion on my early morning walk.

So I did not exercise but together we discovered things.

The nice thing about discovering with a little one is that you can do

things over and over, and enjoy the wonder in their eyes every time.