Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today is the day that for most of my life I would go fishing early in the morning to spend time alone with God, His creation...including all those fun fish. However, in recent years I have broken from that tradition to spend more time with another of God's great creations...my family. Not that going away to be alone with God is a bad thing but if I learned one thing over all those years of fishing it was that many times what started off as something between me and God ended up being something between me and me. Just as God is squeezed from so many things in our life, He became squeezed out of one of the very things I was so thankful for. This got me to thinking about what I really am thankful for and why. As you celebrate this day and what is dear to you, I hope you will find encouragement and maybe a new perspective on what is important to you and where your treasure really is.

I am thankful for who I am and rest in God's Sovereignty. After making so many mistakes in my life and knowing there are countless more, I am so thankful that I am not alone or living in fear or regret. Life is good and exciting and busy and hard and fun and challenging and meaningful and full of surprises. Those surprises are the things I have come to treasure most. Those are the times when I realize that my way is not always God's way. I am thankful for the life I have and not the one I thought I would have and fought to hold on to. I am thankful for unanswered prayers that in all reality is probably why I am able to sit here and write this at all. For all those broken roads and shattered dreams....I am thankful.

I am thankful for my family and just how much they are a part of who I am and who I am becoming. I am thankful for Jodi and that she is my best friend. I am thankful for the mutual love and respect that can only come from God. I am thankful for Andy and his gentleness and desire to learn. I am thankful for Rae Rae and her laughter and her creative personality. I am thankful for Tirzah and her sense of humor and her loving yet bullying demeanor.

Most of all I am thankful for Jesus and the work He did for me. I am thankful that I have peace through Him. I am thankful for all of God's promises...past, present and those yet to come. I am thankful for my brothers who lift me up in encouragement and take the time to hold me accountable. I am thankful for church and what it is to have real fellowship. I am thankful for God's word and that it is here and alive. I am thankful for Grace and Love, both to give and to receive.

On this day I am thankful that God is so good. I am thankful that He has allowed me to focus on the good things in which I have and not be consumed by that in which I do not.

May you all find peace on this day...the kind of peace that first starts in your heart and overflows to all that around you.

Have a Happy, Blessed, Peaceful, Hopeful, Encouraging, Content and Loving Thanksgiving...