In two days it’s Thanksgiving.
Giving thanks.
Having gratitude.
Being grateful.
All to God.
And back when the first Thanksgiving meal was served, they displayed their food on the tables to display all of their thankfulness. They were thankful for their harvest, the instructions the natives gave them, their new life, their new home. But when it all came down to it, they were thanking God for all of those things. They were thankful for all He provided.
They gave prayer of thanksgiving and praise.
“Go through His gates, giving thanks;
walk through His courts, giving praise.
Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.
Because He is good,
His loyal love and mercy will never end,
and His truth will last throughout all generations!”
(Psalm 100:4-5 The Voice)
Because He is good, His love and mercy will NEVER END!
Never end!
And how is there any way I can thank Him enough for all He’s given?
He says to offer Him gratitude and praise. Offer him...offer…like a sacrifice.
I’m to offer Him gratitude as a gift. It’s pretty easy to be grateful when all is good in my little world and everything’s going the way I want it to, or when I’m in a good mood. But offer Him gratitude when your child is struggling at school or testing boundaries? When you have to wait? When it’s really difficult to love someone who hurt you? When someone who’s dear to you is fighting cancer? When our country looks like it’s falling apart?
But because it’s so hard to give God thanks for those things, that means it’s a sacrifice.
Sometimes I think just saying “Thank You” for something seems such a shallow sacrifice compared to the sacrifice Jesus gave on the cross.
His love is so amazing, if what He asks me to offer Him is simply gratitude.
Gratitude for all He is, all He’s made, all He’s given me, all He’s done for me and all He’ll continue to do.
Yet giving Him thanks is worship to Him.
Because of that I want to try to thank Him all the time not just in November.
Still giving God thanks for all things including:
#1771 the first smell of Christmas trees tied up outside the grocery store
#1772 lunch with a friend at her home
#1773 Dad going to eat lunch with his daughter at school when she especially needed encouragement
#1774 Started to read Circle Maker by Mark Batterson at Discount Tires
#1775 no rain at the soccer tournament (even though it was freezing cold!)
#1776 Thanksgiving with my family a week early
#1777 Seeing our kids wrestling with cousins and laughing the entire time.
#1778 The smell of smoke coming from a neighbor’s chimney on a cold morning walk.
#1779 My husband who knows my favorite things…which includes peppermint milkshakes from Chick fil a. He brought one home the first day they started selling them.
#1780 God longs to hear our requests (Phi. 4:6)
#1781 when you know friends are praying for you
#1782 chaperoning daughter’s field trip to Old Salem, NC
#1783 the 6 years my daughter’s class has been together in the Spanish Immersion program. What a gift! What amazing friendships! What an amazing group of kids and parents!
#1784 my college friends…those kinds of friendships that never end.
#1785 our college friend came to visit (and go to Blue Ribbon!)
#1786 our long-time friendships with friends who took care of our dog over the weekend!
#1787 there was a 2 hour delay at school because it gave me and my son time to dance the Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal song on wii game that morning. (I just had to after watching Dancing with the Stars couple perform a dance to that song!)
#1788 a dream which seems to becoming true
#1789 no restrictions!
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