Thanksgiving Part 2

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  We had a lot of family come together in Thomson, GA (my mom's home) for a great celebration of the Lord's goodness to us.    There were 28 of us in all!  That doesn't include all the dogs that came.  We left Friday morning to spend the rest of our holiday with family in NC and we had a blast.  I'm now officially good with hearing holiday music, watching Christmas movies and even learning Christmas carols for our hymn study in school.  I'll probably "holiday" my blog when I finish updating this post.  

I began a Bible study through my Counting It All Joy yahoo group today using Peter Lord's "Getting to Know God the Son Jesus Christ".  I'm looking forward to working through this study during the month of December and really focusing myself and my family on Jesus.    I spent November trying to thank the Lord for things each day.  I'm purposing to spend December focusing on Jesus, the Son of God.  I want to spend it rejoicing in Him not focused only on Him as a baby in a manger but as the Lord of All who rules and reigns now.


Ephesians 1:3-14:  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Thanksgiving

This month I have purposed to find things to be thankful about each day.  I've tried to post these ponderings on my facebook page.  Because I love to write, I often think of a ton of things each day I'd like to put into words that I never quite get around to.  As I sat down tonight to purposely throw out some thoughts on the page, so to speak, I must admit I've decided to visit an old memory.

Thankfulness is not a thing I struggle with because I truly am overwhelmed with the blessings God has given me in this life and know how unworthy I am of it all.   Not that I don't have to purpose to choose to be thankful at times that are difficult or purposely make choices to rejoice when my flesh would like to choose differently.  I truly am still a work in progress.  (Thank you Lord; You haven't quit on me!!)  One of my favorite times that God taught me thankfulness was during a Bible Conference at Grace Fellowship.  I was soo sick, again.  Yep, pregnant and nauseous was I.  My pregnancies didn't consist of morning sickness.  They were all day and sometimes all night sickness.  The illness  lasted from 16 to 40 weeks.  Jack Taylor was teaching on being thankful even for the difficult things that come our way in life.  Well, as he was preaching, my body was telling my mind to run or be very embarrassed.  I ran out the door to the bathroom and was relieved to have listened and made it in time.    As I was hugging the toilet, I decided even in this I need to choose to be thankful.  So during and after what felt like the worst case of food poisoning you could imagine, I began praying and thanking Him.  I ended with "Thank you Lord that every pregnancy that I have been ill has resulted in a healthy pregnancy."    Would you believe, I was never sick again that entire pregnancy!!  It was a miracle.  (Of course, I tried that in following pregnancies and He didn't bless me in the same way but He still fixed me and my heart.)  I could truly thank Him during those sick times despite everything else in life that was getting so far behind due to the sickness.  I'll never forget that miracle He did for me that Bible conference.  He healed my body, encouraged my spirit and fixed my heart to choose thankfulness in all things.  Thank you Lord.