THANKS

One of my dear friends sent me a Thanksgiving card yesterday.  Inside was a piece of paper with a typed prayer of thanksgiving.  It touched my heart and I wanted to share with you all on this eve of another special  day of giving thanks.  I don't think my friend will mind my sharing.  It goes like this:

Lord, as I sit down at a Thanksgiving table once again, I want to thank You for Your goodness to me.

Thank You for meeting my needs every day—for food and shelter and clothing, and for the many extras You provide that I so often take for granted.

Thank You for family and friends who make my life complete.  Thank You that even when we are miles apart, we are bound by the cords of Your love.

Thank You that I live in a country where I am free to worship You and to read Your Word.

Most of all, I thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the “light of the world.”  When I turned to Him, He flooded the darkness of my soul with the light of Your love.

Thank You that He not only died for my sins, but that He is alive today at Your side—hearing my prayers and preparing a home for me in Heaven.

Thank You that Jesus came into this world and took up residence in my life as Savior, Lord, and God.

Thank You for all that You have given me as a Christian:  the Holy Spirit who is Your presence in my life, the Bible that is a light to my pathway, and Christian friends who encourage and help me.

Thank You that I can face tomorrow with hope because Jesus is living for me.

O, Lord, how truly rich I am!  Thank you for all You mean to me.

“Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.  For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.”  Psalm 100:4-5

AMEN!

FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

Many many days I learn more from children than I have learned from any adult.  I have laughed at words from children’s mouths.  I have cringed at words from children’s mouths.  I have gotten all teary-eyed at words from children’s mouths. 

Being an only child, The Girl often had to play alone.  She was pretty good at it.  She had lots of “babies”—mainly Cabbage Patch Kids—remember those?  One day when she was maybe somewhere from 4-6 years old, I was walking down the hall and heard singing from her room.  The Girl would use her dolls as her playmates.   On this particular day she was playing church and as I realized the singing was going to continue, I managed to get to my tape player (yes, that was the days of tape players and nothing else) and tape the audio portion without her knowing.   Many times since then I’ve listened to the tape and smiled, but honestly lately as I’ve thought about it on occasion, she wasn’t totally wrong with her wording.  She was singing, “Blessed Insurance, Jesus is mine.  Oh what a full taste of glory divine.”  Okay so many of you know it’s “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.  O what a foretaste of glory divine.”  If you think about it , though, having salvation is “insurance” and it’s “blessed” and His glory when you have a full taste is certainly glory divine.  So all these years later, I still can tell that story and be blessed just as I was on that day. 

So this past Sunday The Girl's helper was absent so I went into the 4 and 5 year old Sunday School class that The Girl teaches to "help" .   After the lesson of the 10 lepers who were healed and only one came back to say “thanks”, there was a prayer time.  I still say God has to smile when he hears his children pray, especially those little ones.  It made me teary-eyed.  Some of the children want to pray aloud and some want to just pray in their hearts.   There is nothing better than hearing them pray.  One child was thankful for everyone—even called most of the everyones  by their names.  And that child has a world of everyones in her life.  I wondered how many folks that child knew but the child remembered to be thankful for all of them.  Really.  I am blessed when I hear those little voices sincerely talking to the Lord.  After that, The Girl gave a handout of a paper with space for a drawing that said at the bottom “I thank God for____________________.”   Okay so there’s wonderful things to be thankful for and the children are really into the project.  There’s the earth, myself, my mama, my heart, people that don’t die in a fire, and a cross.  So I compliment all of these and prepare to go to the copier to make more copies.  They like this project.  As I’m going out, I hear a child ask The Girl how to spell something and realize that on the cross picture it’s going to say “I thank God for Jesus dying on the cross.”  Well wow, I thought the cross would represent church or something like that but, no--thanks for Jesus dying on the cross.  From the mouth and heart of a 5 year old child.   Hmmm.  I return from my copying and comment on all the pictures and realize a yellow arch has been drawn over the top of the cross picture.  I say, “Well, you’ve drawn a sun over your cross.”  To which the child replies as he looks at me with a disbelieving face that I could be so wrong, “NO, that’s the Holy Spirit.”  Well duh.  How could I ever miss that?  Really.  I looked at The Girl and she just smiled and nodded her head with that incredulous look I have learned to recognize through the years. 

So that morning I was reminded that if it’s so easy for little children to talk so freely to the Heavenly Father, it should be just as easy for me.   I realized that yes, we can be thankful for the earth, ourselves, our mamas, our hearts, and even that no one died in a fire.  I was thinking that things such as fires can represent a lot of fear in my life.  I can be thankful that Jesus will calm those fears.  And I realized, too, that I fall so very short in sharing what God did for me by sending his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for me.  If a child can share so confidently, why can’t I?  Why DON’T I?

Yes, this past Sunday morning I was blessed.  And that is only one of the reasons I am thankful this day.

“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”  Mark 10:14

INSOMNIA

Insomnia:  Chronic inability to fall asleep or remain asleep for an adequate length of time

I’ve heard folks speak of how annoying insomnia is.  As for me, I’ve never experienced that very often.  I’m the one who can go to sleep and sleep very well, even sitting straight up in a loud room.  That is, if I’m tired enough.  And, most days, I’m tired enough.  Especially as I age.

Today it’s 4:30 a.m. and I’ve been awake for over an hour and a half.  It could be because my stomach is off.  That could be because I drank a Diet Coke an hour before I went to bed.  I know better than that.  It’s just that I have a limit of three Diet Cokes a week and have only had one so far this week and just felt like I wanted my second last night.  An hour before bedtime.  Not so smart.  Plus, I have a sniffly nose.  Not the full blown cold that The Husband has had ALL week and still has but just enough sniffly nose to keep me awake.  And did I say that The Husband has gone fishing?  Already.  Before 4:30 a.m.  Uh, huh, The Husband LOVES to fish. 

I lay in bed wide awake and got to thinking.   I guess that’s what one does when they have insomnia.  I have a wood cutout of a sheep I’ve had for many years that says “Don’t count sheep, talk to the shepherd.”  Well, having little insomnia, I haven’t done that often but got to doing that this morning and finally decided to just get up and write about the conversation.  So here’s my thoughts in my insomnia state.

The list for things I am thankful for is too long to write each thing.  So here’s a few:

I’m thankful most of all for my salvation and relationship with the Lord.  Without that, nothing else would make sense.

I’m thankful for The Husband and all he brings to my life and our home and the love he has for the Lord, our family, and me.  He is a good man even with the snuff dipping and early rising.

I’m thankful for The Girl.  What a joy she has brought to my life and our home!  We all know I could write so much here but I’ll just say The Husband and I have been blessed beyond measure to have her call us Daddy and Mama.

I’m thankful for The Son-In-Law.  Boy, doesn’t that sound odd? It’s my first Thanksgiving as a Mother-In-Law and I have The Son-In-Law to thank for that.  We are blessed as he is a fine young man who made the choice to love The Girl and join our family.  I couldn’t have picked a better one if I had hand picked him myself.

I am thankful for parents who love me and I am thankful that I never doubted that love.  My parents are those two that everyone loves and so do I.

I am thankful for a sister who allowed me to be a good big sister.  She is very dear to me as is her husband and kids.

I am thankful for an extended family of in-laws that I love.  Many good memories have been made with them.

I am thankful for a place to worship and the freedom I have to worship. 

I am thankful for a church family who supports and loves freely.

I am thankful for friends, both old and new.  Isn’t there a saying that says “one is silver, the other gold”?    Life has a path that brings folks into it that become very precious to me.  

I am thankful for laughter and for tears.  I need them both to keep things in perspective.

I am thankful for my shoes that I can wear all day long without having my feet and legs hurt.   I am especially glad of this as they cost more than any shoes I have ever worn and I could not take them back after I had worn them.  Whew!  Luckily, I am not vain about having to wear good looking shoes.  My Catholic friend calls them “nun” shoes.  I call them “comfortable”.   I wear them every day.  Did I say I can wear them all day long without having painful feet and legs?  Yes!

I am thankful for that pink medicine I took for my stomach earlier and for the wonderful doctor who prescribed it.  She has been my wonderful doctor for about 25 years now and I’m thankful I found her that day long ago after I had fallen through the attic....a great story to tell for her and for me!  It’s the little things…..

I am thankful for music, children, mercy, corn flakes, afternoon naps, an easy to fix hair do, a beautiful day, grace, a love of photography, grits, sweet memories, and so much more.   The list is endless.  Endless. 

One of my favorite songs is one that has been sang by the Children’s Choir at church and says much to me.  It goes like this:

“Dear Lord, we vow to thank you for all the good you give

For birds and trees for skies and seas, the world in which we live.

Dear Lord, we vow to thank you for family and friends

For food and for your faithfulness, your love which never ends.”

The "love which never ends" is one of our biggest blessings.  God is so good and thankfully, He and only He holds our future in His hands.

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  1 Thessalonians 5:18