Thankful

Each in our own words:






Yvonne:

• salvation
• health
• family/hubby/children/etc.
• gift of motherhood
• home
• food
• church family
• grace - God's patience with me
• quiet peaceful life
• sunshine/flowers/blankets

Kenya:

• friends who are happy to listen to your vents

• a gut-busting, tear-dropping laugh

• cuddle time with my hubby

• sharing an evening swapping stories with my kids

• sharing the kitchen with generations of wise women in my family as we prepare for Thanksgiving

• a fun, impromptu sing-a-long that the whole joins in on (just makes you smile)

• (most of all) God's faithfulness to always give you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. Why do we worry anyway?

Jennifer:

• Fall weather

• My patient and loving husband

• Godly parents

• The sound of the ocean

• My church family

• Chocolate in any form

• Sweet memories of those that are no longer with me

• Good health

• My job

• Friends to laugh with

• A loving and forgiving God

Erica:

• Grace

• Faithful, Christian parents

• Loving husband with a great sense of humor and more patience than I deserve

• Siblings I can count as friends

• Red Maple trees in fall

• Amazing brothers and sisters in Christ

• Modern medicine

• The new door that opens any time an old one closes

• Chocolate

• Freedom to worship and express myself

• Inside jokes

• A comfortable home with plenty to eat and a soft, warm bed

• New friends

• Old friends

• In-laws who break every stereotype and are a blessing

• The gift of another day

Togetherness is better than turkey, people are more important than pie, gratitude means more than green bean casserole, sharing is greater than shopping, love is above all.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. - Colossians 3:17

And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Ephesians 5:20

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! - 2 Corinthians 9:15

Above all today, remember the One to whom all Thanksgiving is due.

We'd love to hear the list of the things for which you are thankful; please share it in the comments.

Psalm 1

I thought we could use a bit more Bible in our lives - at least, I know I could.  So, I am going to be working my way through Psalms and I hope you'll join me.
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I am glad to be starting here,  Psalm 1 is one of my favorite passages and I come back to it often.

¹ Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers, 


This verse is clear about who is blessed.  I think, as Christians, we are very careful not to walk with the wicked, but perhaps we are not so careful about where or with whom we stand or sit.  It is one thing to stand or sit in one place and say, "I cannot help what is around me.", but a very different thing to move ourselves out of those places.  2 Timothy 2:22 tells us, "Flee evil desires of youth, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart".  Obviously, there is more to it than being in one place!  We are to FOLLOW the good.  I don't know about you, but I don't think I can follow anything by standing or sitting.
 
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on His law day and night. 

Delight!  I love that word.  What do you delight in - what do you take pleasure in?  If I were to ask you to quickly jot down five things that delight you, would the law of the Lord make the list?  My guess is probably not.  I'll be honest, that isn't an answer that would come to me.  That's when I look at the second part of this verse, "...and who meditates on His law day and night."  That's the problem right there.  Perhaps my delight would be in the law of the Lord if I were meditating on it day and night.  
 
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
   whatever they do prospers. 

That person - the one who delight's in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night - grows, produces, lives.  When I feel "withered", could it be because I have stopped taking in the water, the abundant blessings of my Lord?
 
 ⁴ Not so the wicked!
   They are like chaff
   that the wind blows away. 

Chaff isn't something we really know about these days.  The analogy may be lost on some of us in modern times.  Chaff is the light, papery husk of cereal grains such as wheat, rice and barley.  (That's rice chaff in the photo to the left.)  In those days, the chaff was threshed from the grain on the "threshing floor" and then workers would light a fire to one side of the grain and then fan from the other side.  The chaff, being light, would blow into the fire while the heavier grain was left on the floor, cleaned and ready to be gathered up.  (Matthew 3:12 references this process again, referring to how the Lord will judge and separate, burning the chaff in "unquenchable fire.")  The lines are drawn very clearly here.  Think back to that tree planted by the water, yielding fruit, not withering and compare it to this dry, dusty husk picked up into the air by a breeze and whisked into the fire, destroyed.  Lush, green and clean next to dirty, withered castoff.  
 
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 

Again, it is made clear that the wicked are doomed.  They are not blessed, there are not fed by the streams of water, they are cast into the fire!
 
 ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. 

Are you letting the Lord watch over your path?  Are you letting Him lead you or have you chosen your own way?  You can be sure that any way that isn't God's way, is the way of chaff, the way of the wicked, the sinners and the mockers - the way of destruction.


 

What I Learned (or Re-Learned) This Week

WILTW is back by popular demand.  I hope to have it up every Monday.  - Erica

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1. You reap what you sow. And sometimes you reap what other people sow. Even though you don't like it.
2. Eyeglasses for children will be broken within the first week.
3. Even when you're an adult, you may need your mom to tell you the right thing to do.
4. From now on all banana splits (and anything else) should be made with Blue Bell Groom's Cake Ice Cream.
5. Verse of the day: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,”- Ephesians 1:18
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Clear Vision

I first had to get glasses about ten years ago. It wasn't long before I switched to contacts. Then, two summers ago, I suffered a corneal abrasion to my left eye. The cause was never found, but, according to eye specialist that I saw twice a week for a month, the surface of my eye had just begun to slough off. Yes, that is just about as much fun as it sounds. I sat in the dark, cold compress on the left side of my face, unable to drive and barely able to walk because I was so off balance, having lost all depth perception, and on pain medication. Time passed and I got better. Now, I am the only one who can still see that that eye doesn't open quite as widely as the other. 

Still, even as I healed, I could not bear the thought of putting my contacts back in. Nor did I want to go back to the ophthalmologist. I had had enough of them, I guess. So, time passed. I got a little older and I suddenly realized I'd gone two years without glasses or contacts and I had to squint an awful lot more than I used to. Finally, I returned to the eye doctor and, this week, got my new eyeglasses. 

When I picked them up and put them on, I was shocked. I looked out the window, across the highway and I could read the signs on the far side! I had not even known how much I was missing. The condition of my eyes had deteriorated and I hadn't even noticed. In my fear and carelessness, I had put off clarity. It struck me in that moment, standing at the counter, that this didn't apply only to my eyes. 

Have you ever been injured and let that drive a wedge between you and clarity, love, grace? Have you let fear, carelessness and procrastination degrade your relationship with the Lord? Or maybe it has prevented you from ever knowing what you are missing, from ever opening your eyes to God. 

I pray that your eyes are open, that you do see all He has to offer and that none of us take His many gifts for granted.

Isaiah 35:

⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
   “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
   he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
   he will come to save you.”  

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped.