Skip to main content

Being Thankful is a way to Live

Thanksgiving is over

        the turkey is gone.

Families have likely gone home

          By now, there is barely any indication

that Thanksgiving even occurred except for the

turkey leftovers

that you'll be eating till Christmas.

As we transition from Thanksgiving

to Christmas, my prayer is that Thanksgiving will

invade our hearts giving us peace,

                   Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, 
              since as members of one body you were called to peace. 
              And be thankful.  Colossians 3:15

and makes us glad,

                    Let us come before him with thanksgiving and
                         extol him with music and song.  Psalms 95:2

causing our generosity to overflow to those around us.

                     You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, 
                     and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  
                                                                                       2 Corinthians 9:11
                         Do not be anxious about anything, 
                         but in every situation, by prayer and petition, 
                         with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  
                                                                       Philippians 4:6


This is a command. 

That means that we CAN be thankful.  

God would never ask us to do something we can't do.  

I can be thankful if my table is full, or empty.  

I can be thankful if I'm sick, or healthy.  

I can be thankful no matter what is going on in my life.  

Being thankful is not just a day that I celebrate by gorging myself with turkey 

and then sleeping the rest of the day in a food coma. 

Being thankful is a way to live every day of my life.
















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Live Fearlessly

                                   As I was driving home today, I passed a person walking on the side of the    road.  Since it was cold, and snowy, I thought I should stop and offer the person a ride.  As I drove on by, I was irritated with myself for not stopping.  I could have and should have but I didn't. Why?  I was scared! Maybe that wouldn't bother you, but I'm willing to bet there are things that make you afraid.  It may be snakes or spiders that send the ticker into  overdrive.  Or maybe it's your job and finances that keep you up at night when you should be resting.  Then again perhaps it's relationships that consume your thoughts and energy.  As followers of God, we know that we are told not to be afraid.  Yet we often are afraid despite everything we know.   As I was driving away from a missed opportunity, I began thinking about what it is that makes us afraid.  I honestly am not sure what it is that causes us to be afraid when we should be bold, but I

Tragedy: A Christian Response

I want to start by telling you a story.  We were new parents.  When Our oldest, a son, was about eighteen to twenty months we had another baby, a girl with brown hair and huge eyes.   One day as I went to feed her, my son who may have been two at the time wandered off to another part of the house.  The next thing I heard was a thud.  I grabbed my baby girl and ran to see what happened.  There was my son with a table on top of him.  He had pulled it over on himself and more blood than I had ever seen was running all over.   We put him in the car and dashed for the ER.  It was not a fun trip. He had a skull fracture and many stitches.  Fast forward about fourteen or fifteen years, I’m at a stop light and watch my youngest daughter about ten start across a street on a bike start across a street just as a truck comes around a corner into the path of the bike.  She hit the side of the truck and bounced onto the road.   I grabbed her up and checked her over there were no injuries, but

The God of Order

  Yesterday, my children and I went walking on a bike trail.    The weather was perfect.   Sunny, warm but not hot.   As we were walking, we started to talk about creation.   Creation itself always amazes me.     Can you imagine watching creation unfold at the word of the Almighty?   It would be   the most glorious and lovely thing to see.      As we were talking, I asked,  “What do you think would have happed if  God had created people first?”     They stopped  gave me a questioning look then my daughter said, “I suppose that we would have starved because there was no food.”     And we all had a laugh creating  other scenarios for what might  have happened if creation had happened in any other way.      Yet, the   fact is that creation itself demonstrates that God is a God of order.   Each day of creation built on   what had been done the day before.    It also reminds me that God wants our lives to be as orderly as possible. God planned creation before one word was spoken