Remembering to Give Thanks
As a child, Thanksgiving was always such a special time of year. We would all load up and go to my favorite place as a child, my grandpa and grandma’s home.
They lived in the country with cows and chickens and piggies. He had a big barn that had bales and bales of hay. All the cousins would play hide and seek. We climbed over every inch of that old barn. We would chase the chicken and get in trouble. I can hear the screened door open and my grandmother running out fussing at us. “Leave my chickens alone, they won’t lay for weeks if you keep chasing them.”
I am so thankful for the godly influence of so many people when I was a young child. There were Sunday School teachers and VBS teachers that showed me how much I was loved by God. I pray that my children and grandchildren have been influenced by having parents and grandparents that loved Jesus.
Gratitude means being thankful and appreciating the things with which we have been blessed.
As I have thought about being grateful and appreciating influences in my life, I realized that gratitude for what God has done for us means very little if we are not faithful to the one who made our life possible. Faithfulness means living out daily what we have experience in immeasurable depths from a love so deep, God sent his son to redeem us from our selfish ungrateful selves.
Can we be faithful to God if we are not grateful for all He has done for us?
Can we be grateful, truly grateful, and not be faithful to that which he has called us?
In the story of the 10 lepers that were healed by Jesus, only one returned to praise and give glory to him. (Luke 17:11-19) So many times we are like those 9 lepers! Ungrateful and thankless.
Have we become like the nine lepers whom Jesus healed that never returned to thank him?
Thankfulness and living a life of gratitude leads to an abundant life. Our lives can be filled with grace, joy, and peace even in the difficult times if we are grateful and praise God for all the blessings we have.
Father, I pray we always remember to be thankful and praise you even in our biggest storm!
I thank you that you are so loving and caring, that you are faithful even when we are not.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving. A Psalm of David
“If we are grateful surely we will desire to be faithful to the one who has given us life.
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and exult in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High” (Psalms 9:1-2 NASB)
Freda
