Skip to main content

Everyday thanksgiving

Yesterday we celebrated a national day of Thanksgiving. Early in our nations history, our president set aside November 26th as a day to spend in contemplation and thankfulness to God for peace and bounteous blessings. We have continued that tradition to this day. Yet today it has become a day to overeat, play games, watch football, and even shop.

How much time was spent thinking on the blessings we enjoy? Perhaps a few, if a prayer was said to thank God for the food. But what else? Was there time set aside to remember what we really have? I don't mean materially, but spiritually. Or is the dearth of activity in that department suggest a deeper emptiness?

Every day should be a day of thanksgiving. As a baptized believer, I have the most blessed existence! It is not limited to the day or the hour I even spend in the assembly with other Christians. It is a minute by minute thankfulness for the free gift given by Christ when He gave up His right to heaven, came down to live as lowly man and die for my sins. He willingly obeyed the Father in doing this, knowing my own unaware, ungrateful heart. He took a chance that I would accept His gift.

How can I be less than ever-thankful for that?

Consider these words:

"For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."

Hebrews 13:14-16

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Keys to Building a Good Marriage

Photo by Charlotte Duren   We recently moved to a new community.  In all the preparation for holiday celebrations and then the move, getting settled in our home and community, my quiet time dwindled to a few prayers on the run and scattered thoughts on the word.  Add family to the mix and it occurred to me how easy it is to neglect those things which are most important.  If my relationship to God is hurting, how much more so the relationship to my husband and children must be suffering!   The natural ebb and flow of life is never a steady stream, but sometimes a rushing torrent, sometimes a trickle in the desert.  If we women don't carve out time for our own daily study, the whole family suffers and our marriage is not the best it can be. Each of us has the same amount of time.  We have today.  No one is promised more or less.  But we much make a conscious choice how we spend that time.  Now we don't all have the same responsibilit...

Changes

Change is inevitable.  Life is a journey and we cannot see the road ahead.  We plan, we plot, we strategize and organize.  Then some element changes, throwing the entire plan into chaos.   How we respond to that change makes all the difference in the outcome.  What happens when our well-thought out plan is no longer workable?  Do we throw up our hands and give up?  Do we lament and moan and weep over it?  Do we begin working on Plan B?  None of these is a 'wrong' answer as long as we don't get stuck in one too long.  How important is it for us to grieve the loss of our first plan?  It's important and necessary even to mourn for what isn't going to happen, or even the loss of what could be.   Rodger and I planned for me to be a 'stay-at-home mom.'  He never liked coming home to an empty house when he was a kid.  But I think that the stronger motivation was having one of us to be there for our children...

Travel directions

I am currently in route to Washington State.  Plans are for me to stay a few weeks to help our eldest child with her family while she settles into her new role with the National Guard.  My dear husband and I prayed and talked about what we could do as grandparents and this is one thing we felt would benefit the boys as they adjust also. Many times in our married life (we just celebrated our 32nd anniversary) we have had to adjust to new direction.  We met in the small church of Christ in a tiny mountain town in California where he worked in radio and I was the new school teacher.  I smile as I remember those early days of shyness and uncertainty.  Little did we know when we committed to one another that hot day in June where the road would take us. We could not have begun to imagine the places or experiences we would visit. He eventually left radio to begin training for pulpit ministry.  God blessed us with children. He also blessed us with loss, not on...