I pray that today will be a celebration for all God has given you!
May there peace around your table of family and friends.
I am sorry I have not been here much this week. Hopefully you know it's a hard time of year for me.
Christmas will be hard to. But i plan to be back DECEMBER 1 and will try to post as much as possible.
Thank-you for your continued support even when I don't have any new posts.
Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you and yours!
Hello Friends.
I have to be honest with you.
I am struggling today.
Not just today though.
With all of this fall season.
Because two of my favorite men,
have left me behind for Heaven.
It wasn't recently.
No, it was in November of 2005 for my dad.
And September of 2022 for my husband.
Their absence during the holidays makes me sad.
I know that maybe some of you are experiencing the same kinds of sadness.
And yet, I ran across the image above about finding good in everyday. Even in little things.
This past Saturday I received school pictures of my 3 grand sons that live in another state.
What joy that brought to me that day.
I love getting texts everyday from my daughter.
My oldest son lives in another state and isn't as good about keeping in touch, but lately he has been leaving me messengers in Facebook.
My middle son (who has the 3 boys) calls me to catch me up on their lives.
And my youngest son came home and brought me my favorite cupcakes which have been hard to find since grocery prices have sky rocketed in the past few years.
These are not little things to me really.
They help bring me joy and are gifts of God to me.
They remind me of how good He is to me, even in the midst of the sadness I feel at this time of year.
I am not alone.
My kids are there for me.
And so is God who comforts me.
If you are having some sad days this season, or actually at any season,
let the God of comfort surround you.
Because He loves you.
Thanks for letting me share this with you today, my Friends.
Because needless to say, your time you spend here with me, also gives me joy.
God bless!
It’s that time of year again, here in the United States. Turkeys are bought and stuffed, sweet potatoes are made even sweeter with marshmallows, and homes are decorated with pilgrims, straw, and turkeys (unless you’re like my family–we skip straight to decorating for Christmas).
On Thanksgiving Day family and friends gather together to share a great meal and to reflect on all the things they are supposed to be thankful for.
For many, it involves fun family traditions, like standing in a circle and making everyone say one thing that they are thankful for or having kids write on a giant sheet something they are grateful for.
While having a day set aside for giving thanks is great, Paul takes it a big step farther and tells us that we are supposed to be thankful always, every day! (1 Thess. 5:18, Eph. 5:20) And so, throughout the year we make thanksgiving trees and use gratefulness journals. But why, as a Christian, is this important?
It is easy to list big things in our lives that we appreciate. Family, a home, food, a car, a job, health, etc. But at some point, we will run out of those big items and we have to dig a bit deeper for things that we are thankful for. When we do this we begin to see God’s gracious work in our lives.
We begin to see that he woke us this morning and gives us every breath we take, that he made the sun shine today or brought the rain and wind. We begin to look around and see that we can be thankful for the soap we have to wash our hands with and the broom that cleans up crumbs.
But when we dig even deeper we will go beyond the material into things that are even more important. Like the impromptu kiss we received from our child or the encouraging text we got from our friend.
Deeper still, is the thanks we give for the redemption we have in Jesus Christ: the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of our Savior, peace with God, and eternal life.
The deeper we dig the more we realize that every good thing in our lives truly is a gift from God, like the red Tea kennel that sits on my stove and adds a splash of color to my kitchen (James 1: 17). And the more thankful we are the less likely we are to take these gifts for granted.
If you are truly thankful for something you will treat it well. This means that we will treat the people that God places in our lives and those material gifts with respect and gratitude. True thankfulness will cause us to take care of our possessions and to treat them with care. (This is especially important for kids to learn).
A grateful heart will take care with the time that we have been given. When we waste time we not only take it for granted, but we also expect God to give us more. If we are actually thankful for the time that God gives us each day we will use it wisely.
Thanksgiving helps us to better see our generous and gracious God. It shows us that while we don’t deserve God’s goodness, he showers us with it anyway. He often lavishes on us more than we need and more than we ask.
But thanksgiving is especially important during hard times. It helps us remember that God has not forgotten us. A thankful heart remembers all that God has done for us in good times and comforts us with the knowledge that He continues to be faithful, generous, and good in hard times. For even if we lose all our possessions he remains with us and for us. The world may forsake us, but God never will.
Thanksgiving is not a holiday, but a holy disposition that stems from our faith in Christ that has received him as God’s greatest gift.
I hope that we all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving Day this year, but that our thanksgiving continues every day and leads us closer to our good God.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 107:1
Blessings,
Jen Thorn
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Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.
God bless you today and everyday!
Good morning Friends
I am writing this to let you know I am having some computer problems. I will be working on it today and pray I will get it corrected.
Thanks for your patience
God bless!
As a kid I used to wonder why we praised God. Was God so insecure He needed to hear our words of praise all the time? Not at all.
What I’ve come to understand is that praising God is a gift for us. A golden opportunity to be reminded of God’s power, magnificence and all the blessings we have received and often forget to acknowledge. Until we launch into praise.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6) It’s so easy to take the gift of breath for granted, but it came directly from God. At the beginning of time God breathed into us—and all living creatures—the breath of life. Wow. When you take a deep breath and praise God, you’re giving thanks for that.
Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 117:1-2) Look at all those exclamation points. I loved typing them. It goes against all editorial conventions. You’re supposed to use exclamation marks sparingly.
Not when it comes to praising God. Verses like this give us a chance to access the enthusiastic part of our souls. Praise puts us in touch with the godly part of our being, buoyed by God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! (Psalm 100:4) When I’m feeling out of sorts, burdened and weary, I’ll take out a piece of paper or notebook and write down the things I’m grateful for.
There is healing in that simple exercise. I rediscover peace of mind. You think you’d run out of things to be thankful for. Not a chance. At last count, one notebook of mine lists 162 things I’m grateful for. And I’m only just starting.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (Acts 16:25-26)
Miracles come about through praise, even the simple act of singing hymns and praying. Of course, I’m drawn to this story because it involves Paul’s friend Silas. Silas is the name of our new grandson, born this summer. (Talk about an event worthy of praise!) I expect to be singing hymns with him very soon.
Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! (Psalm 149:3) Praise isn’t something you just do with your voice. You can get your whole body involved. Raise your arms, clap your hands. Dance!
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. (Psalm 145:1) I was feeling kind of glum when I started writing this blog. Not anymore. Praise put me back in good spirits. Back in touch with our Maker.
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Good afternoon my friends. The days in our world can get pretty dark at times. But if we remember to keep praise and thanksgiving on our lips, those times can become lighter.
God does not want us to live in the gloom.
He has too much for us to life for that is bright and sunny.
And so the next time you feel at your worst, praise God that He is there to pull you out of it.
Thanks for coming by today.
God bless you!
This morning, I ran across an article about how keeping a journal can help in making a difference in our lives. I thought you might enjoy it, so please read on:
The power of giving thanks on a daily basis can bring you closer to God.
(credit: Rick Hamlin)
Some Bible verses are so clear it’s hard to ignore them. Like Paul’s admonishment: “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thessalonians 5:18).
“Okay, Paul,” I want to respond, “but you’re asking a lot.” How on earth do I give thanks in all circumstances? What if I don’t feel thankful? Why do it in the first place?
Maybe Paul suggests we do it because it’s good for us.
Years ago, someone talked me into keeping a gratitude journal. The goal: put down at least three things everyday that you’re grateful for. Dutifully I did. On some days I wasn’t even sure what I was thankful for, but because I’d promised to write three things down, I’d look for something.
Even things as mundane as, “Thank you, God, for the comb I used on my hair this morning,” adding almost as an afterthought, “Thank you, God, that I even have hair to comb.” Gray and thinning…but there it is. “Thank you, God, for my bathroom mirror, too.” “And the light above it.”
In time I began to see the usefulness of a regular practice of thanksgiving. When I looked for stuff, especially on days I didn’t think I could find anything, things came to mind, things you’d never even thought of. Like…
“Thanks, God, for the friend who texted me this morning…”
“Thanks, God, for all the books on our shelves.” Instead of complaining about running out of shelf space, couldn’t I be grateful for the gift of reading?
“Thanks, God, for my phone.” All those things I can do with it, the world at my fingertips, not to mention the weather, the time, the news, photos, family, friends, Bible verses.
“Thanks, God, for the water that comes out of my faucet.” Clean, clear, fresh. Hot and cold running water. Amazing.
“Thanks, God, for the cup I use every morning.”
“Thanks, God, for the reading light next to my bed.”
“Thanks, God, for the opportunity to thank You.”
Somehow writing things down made thankfulness more real. I had tangible examples. I could read them back and smile.
Then one day after a series of disappointments and setbacks and an overwhelming sense of failure, a gloomy depression came sinking over me. I knew I needed a big dose of thankfulness. This was the chance to test Paul’s dictum of “in all circumstances.”
I went outside, notebook in hand, sat on a bench and started writing. I’d put every little thing I could think of that I was thankful for. My church, the names of friends, my colleagues at work, a favorite teacher. By the time I was finished I’d filled a whole page.
Most importantly, my mood had changed. The gloom began to lift. I was more myself.
My thankful self. Because it is that self that knows God and feels God and loves God as God loves me.
There, one more thing to be thankful for!
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This is a great idea. It is something that I actually used to do. Maybe I should start up again. Back when I kept a journal, I would add my prayer requests to it as well.
In these evil days, we need God more than ever!
A journal like this could be a real help to us to stay on track, knowing God is close by to take care of us.
Thanks for coming by today, Friends.
Have a blessed day.
And I can't say that was just in that was just in my younger life. No, it was even in my older life, that I wasn't so grateful.
Just a few short years ago. In fact, two short years ago. When my marriage of 52 years seemed to produce nothing but anger between my spouse and myself.
And then suddenly and quite unexpectedly, our marriage ended with his death. And the regret of having given up and not trying to work our frustrations out came.
God promises us to never leave or forsake us through and in this 2 plus years since that time, He has taught me a lot.
And He has taught me to be grateful for those years.
Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5
For Christmas that year, my daughter gave me a hoodie that has the word Hope written on the sleeve.
That was especially meaningful to me because all of a sudden that is what I needed. What would happen with me now? I did not know. But I recognized then that my hope in God was what would get me through.
And it has. He has.
Sadly, I have two friends who are going through very similar things with their husbands that I was before my husband passed.
The husband of one friend has just recently found out he has cancer and what she said to me, "I have to get a handle on this anger."
Anger that for her has built up with the years. And now he has cancer and they weren't sure how long he might have to live.
After my own husband passed, when they would complain to me, I would tell them, "Remember that one day, if he passes first, all of the things you are going through with him will be a just a memory."
I was attempting to make them realize not to take for granted the days they had with their husbands. Because they could end abruptly and then there could be regret for not trying harder. For just giving up.
Of course, when you are living in it day after day, that is hard and maybe even impossible to see from someone else's viewpoint.
It took my husband's death for me to learn to be grateful for all those years that God was always with me, growing me into what I was to experience just 2 years ago. I don't think I would be anywhere in life without that.
He has given me the strength to endure it, and yet I had to come to grips with my failures in our marriage and could not keep heaping the blame all on him.
I am thankful for my life with my husband. He was a good man and though maybe a bit hard on the kids at times, he was also a good father. He did love us.
And I am grateful for God for giving him to us for the time on earth that we had him.
I did not see it before his death.
But I do now.
So please do not miss my point.
“I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.” Psalm 86:12
Develop an attitude of gratitude now.
Not just because it is Thanksgiving. Make it a way of life for every day. For every season.
Because you don't know where God may be leading you.
And you don't want to end up regretting the things that you could have done to try to make things better.
Thanks for stopping by. God bless you!
Silent Night “Silent Night” is a favorite Christmas song for many people around the world. Its gentle melody suggests a “heavenly peace” ...
