November 24, 2016

Give Thanks With

a Grateful Heart

November 24, 2016

Ron and I are thankful to have our mothers living in our town.  They are both in their early 90s and are able to live in their own homes.  They are in pretty good health and mentally alert.  They both love their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  What a blessing they are.  

My mom is on the left and Ron's is on the right.  Such sweet ladies!

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone.  Giving thanks should be an every day occurrence.  We don't need a special day to be thankful, but on that one day designated for giving thanks, most people think about what they have to be thankful for.  The list can be limitless. 

Talking to one of our daughters-in-law this evening, an interesting thing came up.  Ever since they moved to Albuquerque, they have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in their home for friends mostly from our son's office.  There has been one man in the group who always offered to fix the turkey.  This year he had a new home and wanted to host the dinner in addition to fixing the turkey.  That worked out well since our daughter-in-law had not been feeling well.

The man does not believe in God and has no relationship with God, but before the meal, he asked our son to offer the blessing as our son always did when the meal was in their home.  We talked about how everyone has things to be thankful for in their lives and at this time of the year they normally realize that and are thankful.  But sometimes they don't know who to thank.  Everything we have is from a loving God.  If we have a lot or just a little, God is the one who deserves thanks.

Sometimes we compare what we have to what others have.  We very often compare ourselves to others who seem to have more.  How about to those who have a lot less?  Comparing really doesn't accomplish much.  We can feel slighted if we have less or may feel arrogant if we have more.  For me, I think God have give me what I need.  He has blessed me with all my needs and many of my wants. 

Apple pie

 

God has blessed us generously and for that, I am so thankful.  Most importantly, I am thankful for His love for me.  I am thankful that He paid the price for my sins on the cross.  He died to set me free from the punishment for those sins.  I am thankful for my family, for my home, for food and daily needs.  I am thankful for things over and above "needs", but things that make my life more comfortable like air-conditioning, heat, clean water, a beautiful yard, a Cochlear implant so I can hear.  I am thankful for running water, an oven for cooking that does not require hauling wood.  The list could fill pages.  I hope you took time today to express your thanks for a loving God for our many blessings.

The last few days have been busy.  I have not felt very good this week and finally went to the doctor Wednesday morning.  She said I had an infection and prescribed medication for it.  I am to go back Monday or Tuesday to see what the tests show that she ran.  I am feeling better tonight than I did that day.  I think the medications are working. 

Cherry pie

 

We went to supper Tuesday evening with friends since we would not be able to do it on our usual Thursday evening.  I felt too bad Wednesday evening to start preparations for Thanksgiving lunch so I spent Thursday morning in the kitchen.  Lunch turned out great.  The turkey took longer to cook than it should have taken, but it was perfect.  Ron said the pies were the best in a long time.  Maybe it was because he baked them.  Notice I said he baked them, not made them.  I had him leave ahead of me to transport the food to his mom's house for lunch and I had him put the pies in the over at her house and they were ready as we were clearing the lunch dishes.  So we had hot apple pie and cherry pie.  Yummy.

Ron sending the kids photos of the pies he baked.