Joy Dare Gratitudes on Monday

I feel like I'm on a really great scavanger hunt!!! Beginning in January, Ann's community of those counting their 1,000 gifts were invited to begin the "Joy Dare." At the beginning of each month, Ann gives a list of prompts, so to speak, of 3 specific things to look for each day --- specific gifts we can be thankful for. It's been so great to do this, but some days have been hard. But here we go:

1. 3 gifts at 3pm: 4 chicken thighs waiting for a decision on how they will be cooked for dinner.

A WW coffee latte frozen popcicle

Sunshine, a gentle breeze, and 83 degree weather

2. 3 gifts green: Oak leaves, all new, little and light green, all popping out in the sunny, warm weather of Florida.

The convenient green dumpster I share with 4 other families, making clean-up, trash removal, so much easier here in the country. Something I don’t think about, but always there.

Fresh spinach salad with it’s dark green, tender leaves, well dressed with bits of bacon, sliced hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes and honey mustard dressing.

3. 3 gifts wore -- My necklace, a breast cancer momento, with the engraved words, “By Grace Alone.”

Memories of an incredible journey through chemo, surgery, and radiation. Scars of a mastectomy, a faint line of stitches, skin tinted tan by radiation.

Hair! Never thought of it as a gift until it was ALL gone --- smooth as a baby’s bottom.

4. 3 gifts hard to give thanks for: dieting! I'm always at odds with it. Always feeling deprived. Always wanting more. But, oh, so thankful for a diet that works, thankful for slow, but steady success, thankful for the willpower to get up and start again when I've fallen.

My vacuum cleaner. I HATE that thing! I HATE using it. We fight. And Buster has caught on that it's not a good thing. It makes me crabby. It gets clogged (my own fault because I don't use it enough!). But I'm so thankful I have it. What would I ever do without it???????

Brown spot on my nose. Yep! I'm having trouble with this one. At first, it looked like a shadow, that maybe my lighting was not right. But on second look, with scrunched up face and twisted neck, there it was ---- I'm now an official brown noser!!!! Reasons??? Perhaps "radiation scatter." Or just "old age spots." Either way, there it is. I feel like Ponochio. I've tried toothpaste (hey, it's supposed to whiten, isn't it????) Anyways, it's been something to laugh about as it seems to humor everyone and tickle funny bones. I think it's God's humorous way of keeping me humble. So I say thank you and sigh!!!!

5. 3 gifts found: Mercy! To live this long, to have made this many mistakes, to have been this stubborn and rebellious, and He has still shown me His mercy and a depth of love I will never comprehend! A thousand thank-you's on this one.

Grace! Were it not for grace, where would I be? On thousand roads to nowhere with salvation up to me! Man, I love that song. I think it's my all time favorite as it just describes ME! Another thousand thank-you's!!!!

A new talent in a friend. To watch him lead the worship service last night made me feel like a proud momma. And the gift is even more precious knowing the pits from which he was raised. Thank you, Lord, for Marty!!!