eucharisteo

Thanksgiving is just a few sleeps away, and it is finally my favorite time of the year. It is deep into autumn and just chilly enough here in the South to put on my warm boots and pretty scarves. 52 weeks in a year- but this one is my favorite. I love this week- the last week of November- because two seasons are colliding in one glorious week. The leaves are crunchy and the air is refreshing, but Fall is fading fast into the busy Christmas season. String lights are being hung on the light posts downtown, our stockings are dangling off the mantle in our apartment, and I just brought Christmas-y candles home from the store. There is something special about these two seasons when they collide- and it makes this week feel like the calm before the storm. (this storm is unfortunately the craziness that  precedes December 25).

As Thanksgiving is almost here, I have been thinking about what I am thankful for and what it truly means to be thankful. This summer I read one of Ann Voskamp's books, One Thousand Gifts, where she describes what life can be like when we embrace daily thanks-giving, or eucharisteo. The Greek word eucharisteo is another word that means giving thanks, and one that she used frequently in her book to describe a full, thanks-giving life. I started to learn more about eucharisteo through her book and I realized how there was room in my life for a lot more eucharisteo.

There was plenty of room for it.

Because I want to live my life without complaints pouring from my mouth. I want to be thankful for the little things, thankful for the big things and everything in between. I want to be thankful for bad days, good days, days without sunshine and days with tears. I'll be the first to admit that complaining is easy. But I don't want complaints any longer. I want to fully embrace thanksgiving, not just this week, not just on Thursday, but every day.This weekend I had the opportunity to reflect more about eucharisteo and what it has looked like in my life since this summer. I am a work in progress. I always will be, because there will always be more room for eucharisteo in my life. But I have grown to see that eucharisteo leads to a full life. 

I want my thanks to Him to overflow from my heart first and my mouth second.
I want to be full of thanks, all the time.
I want eucharisteo, all the time.

I am thankful for weekends where commitment doesn't exist, but my sweatpants and my couch do.
I am thankful for good friends who see me at my worst but love me anyway.
I am thankful for crunchy leaves, long walks and pancakes.
I am thankful for a Lord who is abundantly good, all the time.

-Ellie 

"The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life - in my life - is lack of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving creates abundance; and he miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks - ...it's giving thanks to God for this moment that multiplies the moments, time made enough. I am thank-full. I am time-full." -ann voskamp, one thousand gifts