Living a Full Life

Recently I have been going through a book study with ladies from church. The book is called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp. The dare is to live life fully where you are. The challenge is "eucharisteo," thanksgiving. Its having joy wherever you are or whatever the situation is. Wherever being here, whenever being now.
This book has been a huge, personal challenge to me. It is so hard to always think with thanksgiving in everything. Its so hard for me to look for something to be thankful for when I am in a hurry or when the kids aren't behaving. I forget it so easy. Thanksgiving is a hard thing to live by. Finding joy in everything no matter what, no matter where even a bigger challenge to me.
I marvel at the fact that in a situation where one of the author's children is hurt in a farm accident, she starts thinking immediately where the joy can be found in that moment. After writing this list for so long it has just become such a part of her.
Tonight we went to our local county fair for the demolition derby. We took our boys with us. We sat in the grandstands for awhile and then went and got dinner. As we were sitting down to dinner they announced over the loud speaker that they were looking for a 7 year old little boy who was missing and they were giving a description of him. I looked at my husband and said "I can't ever imagine the sick feeling I would get if I knew any of my boys were missing." Our conversation continued with me asking Edwin "If Jabez were to go missing tonight would he know how to describe what he was wearing?" Edwin said "No."
We headed back to the grandstand for the rest of our evening. We decided we wanted ice cream right away and it was decided that I would go get the ice cream while Edwin took the boys and put the stroller away. As I was coming back from getting the ice cream I spotted Edwin going upstairs to our seats. I saw that he had Dakota but Jabez wasn't near him. I asked him if he knew where he was. He said he didn't. I immediately panicked . I started walking around yelling his name looking desperately for him. I was in tears because I allowed myself to go there and get all out of hand with my emotions. I called out for him and asked other people if they had seen a little boy, that my son was missing. Everybody just kind of looked at me funny. I turned around and looked up the stairs to see a little boy standing at the top of the stairs with a cop. I noticed right away that it was Jabez. At the same time Edwin showed up again after taking Dakota to our friends. I told Edwin he was up the stairs. As we got closer I could hear Jabez saying "where's my daddy, where's my daddy?" The cop was saying "what's your daddy's name?" At about that time we reached the top of the stairs and I grabbed him up in my arms and said " We are here, you are safe now."
We continued on to our seat. That is where I continued to cry for a bit and tried to gather myself. And then it struck me, where was my joy in this situation? How could everything have gone differently for myself had I thought about eucharisteo first before becoming all uptight. I have found the joy in finding my son. I have found the joy that he was around a cop. I have found the joy in God's protection of him. But my challenge for myself in this situation is to come to a place where I approach it differently next time. I want to live a full life. I want to live a life of thanksgiving. I want to live a life of complete joy. I want to learn to live fully in whatever situation no matter what it may be.
Eucharisteo...living fully where you are in joy and thanksgiving.