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Being Thankful
As I was preparing a Thanksgiving feast at our home, I couldn’t help but think about everything that happened in 2021. Yes, there have been several deaths in our family and the year hasn’t been exactly easy, but one thing I’m thankful for is the fact that my husband and I are still here. My mind goes back to our son Stephen who was a special-needs child with numerous health issues. He taught me how to be thankful. I have the active use of my limbs, I’m clothed in my right mind, and I woke up to see another day.
Often, we tend to think about what we have lost and what we don’t have. And yet there are so many who are worse off than we are. Our neighbors whom we are very fond of just got the diagnosis that the wife has only had six months to live. She and her husband have been going to cancer treatments and she told me, “Gail, I’m all right with what the doctors have told me.†But that doesn’t stop me from praying for her and her husband for their well-being.
I reminisced about the last several years when my husband and I made three mission trips to Africa. I saw many people who were less fortunate; yet they made their meager means count because it was the best they had. From these mission trips I came home to a house and not a hut, a car and not a bicycle, the food that I wanted to eat and not what I had to eat, a bed to sleep in and not a mat on the floor, a glass window to look out and not opened window frames that had no glass, and a warm house and not a house that had no doors.
We who live in America are blessed. A humorous example was when we were returning from a mission trip to Africa and had a lay-over in Italy. I went into a restaurant to order a Godfather’s Pizza and was shocked to find that Godfather Pizza did not exist in Rome. I had to laugh because my husband told me, “Gail only in America are you going to get Godfather Pizza with all the trimmings.†In our country we are blessed with so many material possessions that sometimes we forget the main things such as our relationship with Christ and our loved ones.
We go through different challenges, but challenges are just a part of life. There are so many things that need to be improved upon such as social justice, the plight of the homeless, healthcare for the needy, and that’s just to name a few. But at the end of the day, we still have a lot to be thankful for. Many people may have lost loved ones in 2021, as we have in our family. Through it all we are still alive, we are able to see another day, and we are able to thank God for how He has kept us.
Psalms 106:1 (KJV): “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures forever.†Let us not enter into the holiday season grumbling and complaining about what we don’t have. Rather, let us be grateful this season for what we do have, praying for those who are less fortunate, and let us thank God for his goodness and provisions toward us.
Often, we tend to think about what we have lost and what we don’t have. And yet there are so many who are worse off than we are. Our neighbors whom we are very fond of just got the diagnosis that the wife has only had six months to live. She and her husband have been going to cancer treatments and she told me, “Gail, I’m all right with what the doctors have told me.†But that doesn’t stop me from praying for her and her husband for their well-being.
I reminisced about the last several years when my husband and I made three mission trips to Africa. I saw many people who were less fortunate; yet they made their meager means count because it was the best they had. From these mission trips I came home to a house and not a hut, a car and not a bicycle, the food that I wanted to eat and not what I had to eat, a bed to sleep in and not a mat on the floor, a glass window to look out and not opened window frames that had no glass, and a warm house and not a house that had no doors.
We who live in America are blessed. A humorous example was when we were returning from a mission trip to Africa and had a lay-over in Italy. I went into a restaurant to order a Godfather’s Pizza and was shocked to find that Godfather Pizza did not exist in Rome. I had to laugh because my husband told me, “Gail only in America are you going to get Godfather Pizza with all the trimmings.†In our country we are blessed with so many material possessions that sometimes we forget the main things such as our relationship with Christ and our loved ones.
We go through different challenges, but challenges are just a part of life. There are so many things that need to be improved upon such as social justice, the plight of the homeless, healthcare for the needy, and that’s just to name a few. But at the end of the day, we still have a lot to be thankful for. Many people may have lost loved ones in 2021, as we have in our family. Through it all we are still alive, we are able to see another day, and we are able to thank God for how He has kept us.
Psalms 106:1 (KJV): “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures forever.†Let us not enter into the holiday season grumbling and complaining about what we don’t have. Rather, let us be grateful this season for what we do have, praying for those who are less fortunate, and let us thank God for his goodness and provisions toward us.