November 2008

My son came home from school the other day with a craft he had made listing the things he was thankful for.  They were

• Mommy and Daddy (yea, we made the list)
• his sisters (doesn’t this just warm your heart)
• toast
• ice cream

This list was quite insightful to me.  Who know that toast got such high billing?  I’ll be sure to have toast around more often now that I know how much he values it.  Of all the things he’s thankful for, toast is in his top 4 list. 

How about me?  What am I thankful for? 

It is so easy to overlook the reason for Thanksgiving.  In the hustle and bustle of preparing to travel or preparing to host the feast, it’s easy to find yourself going to bed with a belly full of pie and visions of Black Friday savings dancing in your head, having never stopped to reflect on all we have to be thankful for.  And more than just to reflect, but to take a few minutes to actually give thanks to the Lord for the blessings He has given us. 

I feel like Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday.  With stores selling Halloween candy in July, and Christmas trees up in September, the idea of pausing to give thanks is passed over.  Stores don’t push a holiday that doesn’t help to bolster the economic stimulus. 

So, today before my day starts I want to stop and give thanks to the Lord for He has been so good to me.

I am thankful for…

• my husband who loves me and makes me feel so loved
• my three children who give me reasons to smile and laugh each and every day
• my family’s health
• my parents and the close relationship I’ve had with them my whole life
• my in-laws
• my brother and his wife
• my sister in law and brother in law
• my nieces
• Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins
• my freedom
• that I don’t have to worry about how I am going to put food on my table
• my husband’s job
• getting to be a stay at home mom
• that we have clean drinking water available in bounty
• that I don’t live in fear
• chocolate
• taste buds
• my marriage
• my IRL friends
• my blogging friends
• the life of convenience I have
• starry skies
• sunrise and sunset
• snow days
• our pediatrician
• running water
• my church body
• Bible Study Fellowship
• my Labor Day weekend Friends
• the Bible- and the fact that I have several (in different translations even)

There are numerous other things for which I have to give thanks.  I truly live a charmed life.  I am grateful for the many blessings God has bestowed upon me and I pray that I can use what He has given me to serve Him and bring Him glory.

What about you?  What are you thankful for today?  Don’t forget to tell Him!

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My son was playing in the backyard swinging his stick like an ax into the mound of dirt when he announced in an overly dramatic voice, “I am working like a slave!”   I am sure it’s not hard for you to guess what we’ve been studying this year in Bible Study Fellowship.   

That’s right…the life of Moses. 

I was recently reading in Exodus 16 about the Israelites wandering in the desert.  After the Lord had freed them from captivity and led them through the Red Sea, and provided them with drinkable water, they found themselves again without food and water.  And even though God had provided for them every step of the journey, they again found themselves grumbling and complaining.  For 400 years they had been held captives as slaves in Egypt.  Yet here they are “on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt,” (Exodus 16:1) and they are already saying that they wish they had died in Egypt as slaves because there they sat around pots of meat and ate all they wanted unlike here in the desert where they wander for days without food. 

Really?

Had they forgotten so quickly what it was like to be bound as a slave?  Did they really forget all the horrors of it that quickly and think back to it as a time where they all just laid around and ate food? 

I found myself asking, What is wrong with these people?  How can they forget that quickly?  Why would they chose slavery of the unknown?  How can they forget that God is leading them?  He has given them a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day visibly leading them through the desert.  He parted the Red Sea for them for crying out loud, what is their problem?

As I sat there in my self-righteous state judging those Israelites the Lord placed a thought on my heart.

When do I prefer slavery to sin to trusting in God?

Yea, it is really easy for me to sit in my comfortable home reading my Bible (which has the big picture all spelled out for me) and judge the Israelites for their lack of faith.  But what about me? 

God has set me free from my bondage to sin.  It no longer rules my life.  Christ’s death on the cross and the Holy Spirit living in my heart means that through Christ’s power, I now have victory over sin. 

But, how often do I cling to my sin because it is comfortable and something I know, rather then step out in faith, trusting the Lord to lead me?

See, really, I am no better than the Israelites.  Thankfully God was patient with them, showing them again and again His love and His faithfulness by calming their doubts and fears and providing for their needs.  Thankfully He does the same with me.

Weekend Thoughts:
My posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings here at the circus  but, I use my last post of the week to highlight something a little more “thoughtful” and significant. If you had a thoughtful post from this last week, or choose to make a new one, please feel free to add a link in the comments section below. I’d love to hear what you are thinking.

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