Blessed Thanksgiving Everyone!

 Thanksgiving shocks me at times – surging like a sudden storm through my head. I absorb with awe God’s power to create every atom and make all circumstances good in His way and time. Rays of sunshine shoot from the splendor of God to penetrate the forest surrounding my home and my heart. My praise overflows. I’m blessed to live in a place I love among family and friends! What wild, amazing, God-designed flowers each person is in the garden of my life.

 

My deep thanks cut to the core when I observe real, recognizable events no man orchestrated and know, just know for sure, the action was God’s. His signs are ever present, if one but looks. 

 

Still, at times thanks-living can be hard. Like now, with my husband’s physical presence gone from earth. His love has given me exquisite moments of joy – now who ever thought a heart could hurt so badly?  I work to focus on the sweet memories and glorious times with my man now in heaven, and give God praise for what we had.  Eventually, the wave of peace comes again.

 

How I appreciate the privilege of being helpful in someone else’s life through my YouTube channel, by my writing however minutely that may be. To speak or write a word of truth into another person, to thrust a spear into debilitating depression or ignite a dead marriage with new life or encourage a high school student through my teaching! How honored I am to be able to minister to God’s beloveds.

 

Thanksgiving is a humbling act. And “thank you” has many forms. Ordinary thanksgivings to God the great giver for His endless giving.  For simple items like pumpkins and dogs and emotional insights and human re-creations, too. Yay, God did it again. He alone gives significance and purpose to every moment.

 

 As families gather to give thanks to God and enjoy one another, may we all remember the central role Christ plays in all our blessings.

 

I challenge you to find something new to thank God for this year.

 

Thanking God for the gift of light – the pleasure of flicking a switch to brighten a room. And the brightness of the world after a couple days of rain. 

 

Thanking God for pens and computers so we can literally see the ideas that come from someone else’s brain.

 

Thanking God also for the gift of knowing deep within that there is a holy, gracious, living Being Who is worthy of our immense thanks. 

 

May this be your best Thanksgiving day ever and the start of a beautiful holiday season of gratitude.  We all have sooooooooo much to be thankful for. 

May we each live daily with thanks to God seeping from our hearts and spilling from our lips.

 

 

“In everything give thanks to God for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5: 18

 

Thanks For…

 

Hands gifted to work,

Minds gifted to comprehend,

Hearts gifted to care, and

Bodies gifted to act all for His glory.

 

How I’ve been gifted with you

Dear family and friends, 

rich treasure that you are,

Sharing my life.

 

You help me soar higher in my joys

And shoulder me up when I need lifting,

You’ve done both this past year.

I am grateful beyond words.

 

Saturated with love,

Sealed with gratitude

For God, life and you.

Happy Thank the Lord Day!!!

 

 

 

 

Love this quote by G.K. Chesterton. “Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

Jesus Time, Love Notes 365 Daily Devotionals

 

Birthdays

I recently celebrated another birthday! You young ones hang on, because the years roll by with breathless speed. 

All of a sudden, like me, you'll find yourself in the senior ranks, and the delightful surprise is: it's quite fun after all. The opportunity you have for reflection that the hurry-scurry years seldom allowed is great. 

I recently took time to ponder these past decades: Life for me has been less a self-planned unfolding of my choices, as I used to pompously believe and more an intentional journey with God. A release, a freedom to day by day plunge into the unknown, ordained by Him. And then hanging on tightly and delighting in the tour He's planned.

New options appear at every season for walking through open doors God has placed before me. Entering isn't scary any more. I'm always eager to respond to anything that might be of Him. Sometimes I start leaping too fast, but always I'm guided back, sometimes with a thump, to the reality God intends for me in every course of this feast of life.

Over the years I've learned a few important things that change the way I view everything:

I have no giftedness apart from what our God has placed within me. 

I have no desire for riches except to use them for God's work in the world. 

I have no need of anything that God hasn’t provided. 

I am among all women the same but different because I KNOW that I am richly blessed with treasure that cannot be lost or stolen. 

How I praise my God who has birthed His love and wisdom within me!

My goal is only that I may honor Him adequately with these brief days of life.

And leave a legacy of truth and strength for generations to come.

I embrace fully the heritage I received, including my family's history of alcoholism and dysfunction, but also one of faith and creativity and love which I desire to send forth into eternity. 

My major sadness is that now I take my life journey alone without my beloved husband Wayne. Yet, I often sense him still at my side encouraging, comforting and loving on me.

In EVERY SITUATION, I bow to the One who made heaven and earth and me and I say “Thank You for dwelling in me. And for giving me a power to laugh at life and see the sparkle in each person. And thanks for instilling in me a few talents to invest for the Kingdom to come.”

Happy Birthday, Me! Happy Birthday Us!

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Writing Update: 

Mystery at Wycham Manor is coming soon!

A Widow's Love Story  This new book is hpefully not for you, but a nice gift for a friend who has suffered a great loss.