November 23, 2017
Happy "Thinks-Giving"
Did you know that the words "Think" and "Thank" are derived from the same meaning? Ya, me either. Someone mentioned this fun-fact to a group of us this past weekend.....which got me "think"ing:
A few years ago, a good friend named Pam introduced a book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann VosKamp to a bunch of us women. It was the year Mom had passed away, my husband had fallen and broken his hip two weeks later and a dear friend passed away the day after the hip break. It had been a long and difficult year.
This little book, One Thousand Gifts, came along and taught me how to count my blessings. Write them down. Number them. Strive to find 1000 things you were thankful for. It caused me to "think" about all the little things I was thankful for and had never acknowledged. So I started counting.....
1) Music....because it calms me, energizes me, creates me.
12) The bruises on my legs and hips from roller skating...as they serve to remind me
of the fun time I had with the granddaughters.
Every evening, I would pull that journal out and "think" about the day behind me.....seeing how many things I could find to be "thank"ful for.
138) The promise of Heaven.
258). For difficult women in my life that make me roll my eyes and go "Huh?".
I'm not really feeling thankful for this right now, Lord,
but hoping if I write it down, I will be.
It turned into a challenge to find more things than the day before. It changed my way of thinking from one of concentrating on the problems of the day to one of counting the blessings of that day. And I began to change. And I kept counting......
260) My friend Sandee Casey who said to me,
"My mom used to tell me that watching a sunset will make you cry
because in the perfection that God displays, you long for home with God.
Perfection is the evidence that God exists and your soul yearns for that."
This beautiful friend, Sandee, passed away suddenly two months ago. She no longer yearns for home with God. She has arrived home.
So, as we sit around the table with family or friends or maybe even alone this Thanksgiving Day, close your eyes...."Think" and then "Thank" God for being God. How often do we thank Him for just being Him? He didn't have to make the sunrise go from black to orange to yellow. He didn't have to make the leaves go from green to red to brown.....He chose to...as a gift to you because He's counting His blessings as well....and you're at the top of His list.
Happy Thanksgiving, my Friend, I'm so thankful for you.
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