Give Thanks!

Greetings,

My prayer for you this day is that you and your family have a very happy Thanksgiving.  A big shout out to my Mom and Dad, I love you guys, to Kenny and Sharon, hang in there, and to all of my family who might be reading this today, I give thanks for you.

Scriptutre tells us to give thanks with a grateful heart!  On my journey home I give thanks for those special days.  Thanksgiving is one of them.  There was always a real chance that I was not going to get up from one of those operating tables, but I DID!  Christine and I have not let that blessing go unfulfilled.  We give thanks to God every day that He decided to let me go on in this life.

However, immediately following my second and third surgeries I was quite bitter at God.  I was thankful that He had given me more time but I don't think I gave thanks with a grateful heart.  Giving thanks in that manner calls for a realization that God is sovereign, that the things that He decides to do or no to do is always the right choice.  It's hard some times to give thanks for the dicfficult times in our lives that's just human nature.  But every once in a while we get that opportunity to truly realize that we have been blessed by God.  I look around at my life and I take stock in what I have gained and lost and it is easy for me, now, to say THANK YOU GOD!
I see my family and I think of those who are alone in life.  I look at my job and think of those who are struggling financially.  I look at my health and, even though, it could be better it could be much worse!  I give thanks for the blessings in my life and I pray that you would do the same tomorrow.  Don't let this day of Thanksgiving go by without looking around and seeing all the places, things, and people God has blessed you with.

Life isn't hard, it's just life.  We all suffer the same yet we don't all rejoice the same.  Scripture tells us not to grieve as if we are people with no hope.  One of my favorite sayings comes from The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf tells Frodo that "everyone wishes that such bad things would never happen  to us but that is not our choice.  The only choice we have is to decide what we are going to do with the time that we have been given."   I like that thought.  So, the question is this:  with all the pains and strains, ups and downs,and ins and outs, what are you going to do with the time you have been given?

I have been given extra time and I am going to give thanks with a grateful heart!


Blessings,

Derek