Thanksgiving Poem

Today I am thankful for so many things
Houses and family, my hopes and my dreams
A husband who loves me, a church family who cares
Nights that are free from fear and despair
Knowing that God has my best interest at heart
Showers of blessing that I know will soon start
Grace and mercy to get me through every day
I'm thankful for how the Lord guides my way
Victories that have come, and defeats to inform
I can do nothing without the strength of my Lord
Now on this day, I remember these things
Giving glory to God for all the goodness He brings.


Poem by Dana Rongione

May I Never Forget to Be Thankful

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. - Luke 17:11-19

My, my, my! How rude! How completely and totally ungrateful. I'm sure those healed lepers were anxious to go home and see their families, but certainly they could have spared a moment to say, "Thank you," right?

How about us? How often are we guilty of the same thing? So often we come to God with our expectations. We expect Him to work. We expect Him to meet our needs. We expect Him to answer our prayers in the way we see fit. When He doesn't, we get angry, we pout and complain. When He does meet our expectations, we often have no reaction. We're pleased that God did what we asked, but we don't voice that pleasure in the form of thanks. We expect so much and give thanks for so little. Shame on us!

Today, be thankful for all things, even the little things that don't seem like a big deal. Let's spend the day giving thanks and praising the Lord for who He is and for all He's done.

GIVE THANKS

Forgive Me When I Whine

Author Unknown

Today upon a bus, I saw
A lovely maid with golden hair;
I envied her -- she seemed so gay,
And how, I wished I were so fair;
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle;
She had one foot and wore a crutch,
But as she passed, a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two feet -- the world is mine.

And when I stopped to buy some sweets,
The lad who served me had such charm;
He seemed to radiate good cheer,
His manner was so kind and warm;
I said, "It's nice to deal with you,
Such courtesy I seldom find";
He turned and said, "Oh, thank you sir."
And then I saw that he was blind.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two eyes -- the world is mine.

Then, when walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue;
He stood and watched the others play,
It seemed he knew not what to do;
I stopped a moment, then I said,
"Why don't you join the others, dear?"
He looked ahead without a word,
And then I knew he could not hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two ears -- the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I'd go;
With eyes to see the sunsets glow,
With ears to hear what I would know.
I am blessed indeed. The world is mine;
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

Four Reasons to Be Thankful

As we approach the holiday season, our minds turn to thoughts of our many blessings . . . or at least they should. When we turn on the news or listen to conversations around us, it doesn't seem like there's much to be thankful for. Wars. Layoffs. Economic crises. Violence. Greed. The world is becoming a very dark place, and in that darkness it becomes easy to forget how good God has been to us. Just like the children of Israel in Psalm 107, we gripe and complain about how bad things are and neglect to praise God for how He has blessed us. But in that blessed Psalm, God gives us four reminders of why we should be thankful.

1. He leads us in the way we need to go. - vs. 7
If we are faithful to follow the Lord's leading, we will stay in His will. If we are in His will, then all will be well. Does that mean no bad things will happen? No, but it means we will have peace knowing that we are where God wants us to be.

2. He brightens our days. - vs. 14
Ever feel like you're surrounded by darkness? Ever feel like there's no light to be found? I have, but the truth is Jesus is the Light. He can brighten even our darkest days if we'll allow Him to. Spend a few minutes with Him and see if you don't notice a ray of light on the horizon.

3. He speaks to us - vs. 20
What a privilege to know that the God of this world takes time to speak to His children! He has given us His Word as a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. He speaks to us through messages and songs. He nudges our hearts and whispers to us in His still, small voice. God still speaks. The question is, "Are we listening?"

4. He calms either our storms or our souls - vs. 29
The McKameys sing a song entitled "Sometimes He Calms Me." The message of the song is that sometimes it is God's will for us to go through a storm, but during those times in which He will not calm the storm, He can calm us. He gives us sweet peace to make it through the trial. He knows what we need, and as much as we don't like it, sometimes we need the storms. But even during those times, we need to not stress, for God can calm our troubled hearts.

I encourage you to take time to read through this entire Psalm, but if nothing else, meditate on these four points. God deserves our thankfulness. He deserves our praise. Whether we praise Him through the sunshine or praise Him through the storm, let's remember to give all glory to Him for He alone is worthy!

Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindess of the LORD. - Psalm 107:43

Extra Baggage

Last Saturday we took our dogs over to Chestnut Ridge, a heritage preserve about 20 minutes from our house. The 2.5 mile trail is a moderate, but beautiful hike down to the peace and serenity of a gently flowing stream. It's one of our favorite places to go.

When we arrived at the gate to the heritage preserve, we stopped the truck and got out. The dogs immediately started running to and fro, exploring and looking for a place to go to the bathroom. We allow them this freedom because they know not to get out of our sight, and they're very well-behaved.

While Jason and I were getting our gear together, Mitch found an interesting item that he wanted to explore more closely. By the time Jason and I noticed what he had gotten into, it was too late. He had found the skeleton of a rather large animal and decided to roll in it. (Why do dogs do that?) As soon as Jason realized what Mitch was doing, he called him to come back to the truck. Mitch stood up and ran over to us but was immediately spooked by something that had hold of his collar. Fear filled his eyes as he ran faster towards us, a large white blur hanging from his collar and bouncing from side to side as he ran. Once we got him stopped, we discovered the item to be the backbone of the skeleton he had rolled in. GROSS!!!! When Mitch had rolled on the ground, part of the backbone had gotten tangled in his collar. Jason had to work it loose and dispose of it. (I certainly wasn't going to touch it!!!)

Mitch didn't know what to think. To him, he was just doing a little exploring, but he got much more than what he had planned on. Not only had he been "grabbed" by a dead animal but at that point he smelled like one too. He wasn't pleased. After I had calmed him down, I patted him on the head and said, "That's what happens when you get into stuff that you're not supposed to mess with." WHACK! God thumped me right between the eyes.

Many times in life, we have a knack for getting ourselves into difficult situations. Why? Just like Mitch, we do things we know we're not supposed to do. We go where we shouldn't go, watch what we shouldn't watch, listen to things better left unheard, and say things better left unsaid. We get into things that we have no business messing with and then wonder why things are going wrong in our lives. Just as Mitch got more than he had planned on, so do we when we do the wrong things. Remember the old song, "Sin Will Take You Farther Than You Want to Go"? It's true. We would be much better off if we would stick to the right path and not wander off to go "exploring." After all, who wants to carry around all that extra baggage (especially if it's part of a skeleton)?

Stop and Smell the Roses, But Not the Skunk

On our way to church Sunday morning, we ran over a skunk. We came up over the hill, and there he was lying in the road. We didn't have time to swerve and miss him. Needless to say, it was a VERY long ride to church. We rolled the windows down, hoping that the fresh outside air would help to get rid of some of the smell. We noticed that as long as we were moving, the smell wasn't too bad. If we stopped, however, the fragrance was overwhelming. It stunk so bad that I could taste it. In fact, it was so bad that I was afraid my clothes were going to start smelling skunk-like as well. So we did our best to keep moving. . .that is, until we got to church. (I won't even go into the smell that awaited us when we got out of church that afternoon. Let's just say it wasn't pleasant.)

You know, sometimes life stinks. Things happen that we feel shouldn't. Daily circumstances don't always meet our qualifications for a good day. All in all, it stinks just like the skunk we hit (may he rest in pieces, er, peace). But if we sit around thinking about how bad things are, the smell (or circumstance) won't get any better. In fact, it will get worse. The best way to deal with the smell is to keep moving. Keep going. Keep running the race. Keep serving the Lord. Don't focus on the smell, focus on doing all you can to please the Lord. As we do, the smell starts to wear off to the point that we hardly notice it anymore. Praise the Lord!

(BTW, if you're riding down 183 towards Pickens any time in the near future, watch out for Pepe La Pew! He's hard to miss.)