Thursday, November 25, 2010

I AM THANKFUL FOR....

In accordance with the old hymn, today let us "count our blessings...name them one by one":

I am thankful for a wonderful husband of 37 years....for his love, his provision, his protection, his faithfulness and his love for God.

I am thankful for my precious children....both of them are my heart and I cannot imagine life without either of them.  THANK YOU GOD!!!

I am thankful for my both by son-in-love and daughter-in-love....what gifts they are to our children and to our family.  True blessings, indeed!

I am thankful for our two beautiful, precious, adorable granddaughters.....the very joys of my life!  Thank you God they are healthy and strong.  What a gift to us!!

I am thankful for my mother.  She has loved me, supported me, been there for me, prayed for me and given to me in more ways than I could ever begin to count.  I am blessed to be her daughter.

I am thankful for friends.  God has blessed me above measure with friends....some I've known a lifetime, some I've only known a short time but will know for eternity because we are sisters in the Lord.  How they've blessed me, ministered to me, prayed for me, and loved me, blessing me more than I can even begin to recount.  I thank the Lord for EACH one of them.

I am thankful for our extended family....each one so special...so treasured.

I am thankful for our church.  Oh what a blessing it is to us. Our pastor, our women's ministry, the heart of a church whose focus is sharing Christ with others.

I am thankful for our freedom...for our country.  I am thankful to be able to speak openly about the Lord, to read my Bible, to pray openly, to meet openly, not in fear. 

I am thankful for the Bible.  Even though the Word is being made available on "Kindle", on iphones, and all other sorts of technology ( and I'm not knocking that.  I see the benefits of that, too), there is just something so awesome, so powerful and so precious to me about just holding the Word of God in my hands.  It is God breathed, it is holy and it is HIS WORDS to us!! 

I am thankful for a home, a safe, comfortable place to live, with warm beds to sleep in, running water..HOT water at the turn of a faucet.  I saw a 60 minutes piece last week about Haiti and the refugees who are living in makeshift tents on the median of a highway with their entire family literally feet from whizzing cars and trucks!!  Cholera is at epidemic levels due to the terrible conditions and the lack of safe, clean drinking water.  Yet we never give it a thought when we turn on the tap, flush the potty or take a shower. Oh God, minister to those who have so little and make us ever thankful when we have SO Much!!

I am thankful for our food....an overabundance of food.  Yes, we will dive into a feast today of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings and we will leave with overly full bellies and probaby still eat again before bedtime. Yet around the world today there are literally millions who will not have a bite to eat today, who are watching as their children waste away from hunger right before their eyes and they have no food to give them.  I cannot imagine.  May we be truly THANKFUL as we enjoy what we have today and pray for those who do not.

I am thankful for my health.  As the years are creeping up on me, I realize more and more how precious the gift of good health is.  Our bodies are decaying from the time we are born.  I had a good friend who used to say "We are in the land of the dying on the way to the land of the living".  Yet I look around at so many who are battling catastropic illnesses, who never live a day without pain.  I thought of several this morning whose parents are in the nursing home with alzheimers.  They will not be at their Thanksgiving table today and even if they were there, they would not know them.  For those of you who are there, my heart goes out to you and I have prayed for each of you I know today whose mom is there. 

I am thankful to be able to walk, to talk, to see, to hear, to smell and to taste....to feel, to be able to move under my own power.  Oh how we take those things for granted til we can no longer do them. 

I am thankful for the beauty of the fall....for how it reminds us of our GREAT GOD!!!

I am thankful for modern technology that allows us to communicate at the touch of a button and keep in touch with friends and family who live far away.  For my sweet friend, Melissa, whose husband is in Afghanistan and can communicate with her husband often and be reassured that he is ok, that is HUGE! 

I am thankful for all who are serving our country today and keeping us safe and for those who have gone before us and paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  Protect them today Lord...each one of them and bless them.  God bless the USA!

I am thankful for all of this and so much more....

I hope this has made you think a little about what YOU are thankful for today.  Won't you take a moment before you dive into the turkey and tell Him what you are thankful for?  Name your blessings one by one.

Because you see, as wonderful as all of these blessings are above...and I am truly THANKFUL for each of them................the greatest blessing of all, the thing I am MOST thankful for above all of these is JESUS!!

Thank you God for Jesus, for his death for me and His life in me.  Thank you for loving me enough to send your only Son to die for me to pay a debt I did not owe because I owed a debt I could not pay.    What love!!!!!!!!! What mercy!!!! What grace!!

THANK YOU GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Happy Thanksgiving!!