Today I’m not only doing my second book review ever on the site, but running my very first giveaway!

I’m so excited!

This giveaway has been long promised, and now it’s finally happening!

So what is the book? You’ve been seeing me mention it for a bit now on social sites and in posts.

The book is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

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I’ve been blown away by this book.

You know how some books it seems God leads you to in specific times? I’d been meaning to read One Thousand Gifts for some time, not the least of reasons because this amazing author did something that directly inspired me to believe in myself as a blogger.

She shared my post.

No really! About a year ago I wrote a post about a young man who had passed away into heavens arms. His name was Andrew Rundle. I’d never met him but his story had inspired me.

His life had touched many, and my little post spread through the area faster than I could anticipate. I found out that the family had read it and been blessed. And then, I don’t know how, Ann Voskamp found it and shared it. The views, which had been slowing down, doubled over night!

Her link is probably dead now since I switched hosting and changed the address, but that is ok. Maybe at some point I can contact her to update it but, for me, that post isn’t about generating my own page views and vision and furthering my message, it’s about Andrew, his testimony, and the beauty of his life. Whatever God wants to do with that post in future is up to Him.

To date that post has gotten more viewership than anything I’ve ever written.

I’m still humbled by how many it touched.

At the time I didn’t know much about who Ann Voskamp was. I saw she had published a book and was thrilled a published author had read and shared my post. I subscribed to her blog, finding her writing beautiful.

I gradually became aware that her book was a bestseller. I spotted it on sale and grabbed a copy. It landed on my shelf and stayed there a few months.

I didn’t, really, even know what it was about.

And then, on a night when I had been in tears for most of the evening in frustration over my life, as if it was some kind of divine appointment (and it probably was) I, quite randomly, picked it up and began to read.

By the third chapter I knew it would change my life.

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The above picture is an affiliate link to Amazon.

It’s not that what Ann was writing was entirely new to me. Some of the themes I even recognized as ones I’d written about myself. But she brought me deeper, and swept curtains away I didn’t even know existed.

Without giving away to much, because honestly I really want you all to read this book for yourself, Ann writes about the principle of gratitude.

The Discipline of Gratitude.

And just how much it can change your life, just how much it is crucial to your faith.

She’s not preachy, nor condemning. She doesn’t write in a point by point way.

In fact, her style of writing was an incredible surprise to me. Almost as much as the message itself.

Ann writes in prose. The whole thing in prose. Every sentence, prose. And she writes autobiographically.

Instead of laying out points in chapters, she wrote her journey of discovering those points herself. The result is an intimate glimpse into her very heart as it walks a daily path. And that intimacy, that very rawness and vulnerability, speaks more strongly than any analytical explanation ever could. She doesn’t write it to your mind, she writes it to your heart.

I read a page to my Dad and he honored me by saying that her style reminded him of my own. I had noticed that at times I can write with a tad of similarity, but there is a very big difference. Every once in awhile I write a sentence that blows me away. I sit back amazed that I crafted such a masterpiece in words. I call it, “nearly quotable!” I don’t write such sentences often, but I love it when I do.

Every one of her sentences is like that. Intimately crafted and turned.

She makes art with words.

She makes art and she takes your hand and she leads you to a place where, if you choose, you can see His face, and be gratified.

I’m fairly certain this is a book I won’t just read once. Some books become lifelong companions, some authors become ministers and teachers for your heart. This book is like that.

It’s not often a book comes along that can change your life.

It took principles that I knew, but were scattered and not often put into practice, and focused them. It inspired me to take my faith more seriously, my walk more seriously, my words more seriously. To slow down and listen to Him, look for Him. All things I’d done before, but never in a disciplined way.

And God used it to bring me from tears to joy in one night. On my face before Him in repentance.

I even felt like I had to get myself out some communion elements at three in the morning and have communion and give thanks.

He’d even provided the elements in a food give away from my church that week.

So do you want the book? The affiliate links in this post will take you to places where you can purchase, either through Dayspring or Amazon, your choice. Or you can enter the giveaway below and perhaps get a free copy!

The Raffle will stay live till next Friday, the giveaway is open to USA residents only. (sorry, more complicated than I’m ready for to extend to foreign readers) Please Share this post with all your friends! Lets make this a party shall we?
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Joy Aletheia Stevens

Quick Links and Additional resources:

Ann Voskamps Blog: A Holy Experience

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Affiliate Links through Amazon:

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Giveaway and Review Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this review, I spent my own, personal, money to purchase the book, and the book for the giveaway was not supplied to me for free either. This post is not sponsored. All opinions are mine.

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