On Being Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!  

I’ve been thinking a lot about thankfulness in the recent weeks.  Here are a few of my thoughts:

There are varying degrees of thankfulness.  For instance, you can be thankful that your favorite team won the big game, which is not the same degree as being thankful that you have a huge, loving, supportive family.  There are many degrees of thankfulness between those two.  None of them are trivial or wrong.  It’s ok to be thankful that you don’t have to get up early and go to work on Saturday, just as it is ok to be thankful that you are healthy and happy and have a roof over your head.  Gratitude is gratitude no matter the reason.  I think it’s especially important in these times to be thankful for everything.  It makes your heart lighter and your outlook brighter.  No one has a perfect life and many, many have it way worse than most of us reading this today.  But it’s not only the good things we should be thankful for.  Because when I said we should be thankful for everything, I meant exactly that.  Everything.  Good and bad. 

It’s important to give thanks for the wonderful as well as the wearisome.  I’ve practiced this for a long time, although not as consistently as I should.  No one is perfect, right?  Recently I’ve been really thinking about being thankful when life throws you things that are really hard to handle.  And as I have practiced this over the last few weeks I have found something really amazing has happened.  I have such a peace of mind about everything.  That’s not to say that I know everything is going to turn out rosy, but more importantly I know that no matter how it all turns out, everything will be ok.  Because I know that no matter what happens, God is always with me, guiding me to try and see the purpose in everything.  And when I express thankfulness to God for EVERYTHING in my life, I feel at peace.

At night, when I say my prayers I end by thanking God for every good and beautiful and wonderful thing in my life and then I thank Him for all the trials and tribulations and heartaches too.  Because everything, as long as I draw breath on this Earth, is a gift from God.  Even the bad stuff.  We may never know the reason for the trials but that’s ok. Just knowing that God has a plan is enough.  Trust me.  It’s enough.

This Thanksgiving my wish for all of us is to have the peace and happiness that comes from being truly thankful for everything.

I love you my friends.  God Bless.

 

The Power of Prayer

I'm going to apologize in advance for any mistakes in this post.  I haven't slept in 36 hours.  I am exhausted beyond belief.  But I have to put my thoughts down now while they are fresh in my brain.


Yesterday evening my son-in-law, Adam, fell 20 feet and fractured his spine in three places.  He had to be air lifted to a trauma center.  He had no feeling below his belly button.  In the beginning things were confusing and scary and as the night wore on they were down right frightening.  I knew I was going to need a lot of help with this. 


I contacted my siblings and my OKC family.  We are a huge group.  I asked for their prayers.  Many of them asked others to pray.  My daughter Sarah contacted her friends all over the country.  Adam's family called on all of their family. Eventually we had whole congregations of people who didn't even know Adam praying for him.  The whole thing gave me a great sense of peace. 


Prayer works people!  Adam had the best outcome possible at this time.  His spinal cord is intact but severely bruised. At this point it is a waiting game to see how he recovers from this. The swelling and bruising have to heal.  We are choosing to be positive and feel that he will regain complete function.  He is a strong and determined young man.  I have no doubt that he will do whatever it takes to rehab from this.  It is going to be a long and difficult road but I have faith in him.


You know, in the world we live in it is very easy to become cynical and lose sight of the goodness in people.  Today the goodness was overflowing.  Just to know that there were literally hundreds of people, many who didn't even know him, praying for his healing...it filled my heart to overflowing.  I can never express how grateful I am for all the prayers and positive energy.  Please continue to pray for his recovery and for strength for his wife, my daughter, Beth.


I must find a pillow now.  But before I do I need you all to know how grateful I am for all of your prayers.  Thank you to everyone I know and everyone I don't know.  My heart is overflowing with love for you all. 


Prayer works people!  Our God is an awesome God!  Praise and thanksgiving to Him for all of todays blessings.


Goodnight