Eucharisteo

It's bright pink, one of my favorite colors. An etched dove graces the front cover. How perfect, since a dove symbolizes peace. It is my new Eucharisteo Journal, where I will begin to list my gifts throughout the day. Each little thing and moment to be thankful for will find its place within the pages of my journal.

All excerpts below are taken from One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

Eucharisteo

"And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them...."(Luke 22:19 NIV)

Gave Thanks = Eucharisteo.

The root word of Eucharisteo is Charis, meaning grace.
Eucharisteo also holds the derivative Greek word Chara, meaning joy.

Charis - Grace
Chara - Joy
Eucharisteo - Thanksgiving

"On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it."
(1 Corinthians 11:23-24) Jesus offered thanksgiving for that which would break him, wound him, crush him and yield a bounty of joy (Chara).

We need to learn how to live a life of eucharisteo - always giving thanks, no matter the circumstances.

"I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little." (Philippians 4:11-12)

I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks. Something always comes to fill the empty places. And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me. This, this makes me full, and I magnify Him with thanksgiving (Psalm 69:30), and God enters the world. What will a life magnify? The world's stress cracks, the grubbiness of a day, all that is wholly wrong and terribly busted? Or God?

I say thanks and I swell with Him, and I swell the world and He stirs me, joy all afoot.

***

So yes, in my bright and cheery journal, I have begun my list....my eucharisteo. Letting His joy engulf me, as I take time to notice His offerings throughout the day. They are all His gifts to me, so I may as well take a hold of them, relish in them, remember them and give thanks for them.

I will soon notice that all of the daily stressful moments that seem to be crushing me, will be taken over by the rays of sunshine that peek through minute by minute.

Eucharisteo.