Psalm 9:1 I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
Psalm 69:30 I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 100:4-5 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Happy Thanksgiving Day, Peeps! Today is the day that we set aside once a year to remember the things that we are thankful for. Why in the world do we try to limit it to one day is beyond me. We should be thankful every minute of every day because there is always, always something to be thankful for. I know there may be a bit of redundancy in my posts, but thanksgiving isn’t just a one day event, it’s a way of life!
Life is ever changing, and who would have thought as we celebrated Thanksgiving last year that 2020 would be such a crazy year. We have had the first pandemic in over 100 years. We then had a toilet paper shortage. I didn’t understand why one would need all that toilet paper for a respiratory virus until I contracted it myself. Seems there are a lot of bathroom trips associated with it, hence the need for tissue. Still not sure why people chose to hoard it though. Shut downs came next. People I love lost jobs, and unemployment soared. We began wearing masks everywhere we went, and we learned to rely on our eyes to show our smiles instead of our lips. Then came the presidential election which still hasn’t been certified. Churches have been closed, having parking lot services or on-line services. Businesses are closing at a rapid pace. Whoa. If we only look at this year end review, we might say that this was a terrible year, and quite frankly, parts of this year have been pretty awful for a lot of people.
If we focus on the bad, then we only see the bad. But if we focus our attitude on gratitude, we begin to see that there is good in every situation. This has been quite a unique year, and believe it or not, many good things have come from this unprecedented year in our life. Let’s do a different year end review.
A novel virus has been unleashed on the public. Scientist have come together and gained much knowledge on this virus in a very short period of time, and they are developing a vaccine in record time. (I think it will need more testing to establish safety and efficacy, but still…look how fast they are working to get this figured out!) Toilet paper disappeared for a while, but we never ran completely out. Praise God! Restaurants and movie theaters were closed, and this forced families to stay home. People began cooking meals at home again and eating together as a family. Family time became a valuable asset again that turned out to be a missing necessity in life. Families began to appreciate their time together. Churches made a way to continue worship during the shut downs, and the church moved outside of the confines of the building. Jobs began to be re-established slowly, and the unemployment rates that were soaring began to come down. We were fortunate in that I never lost my job, and my husband was even blessed with a new position. There truly is a silver lining in every circumstance if we look for it.
I even have to say a praise of Thanksgiving for our recent COVID-19 illness. We felt really sick for several days. Daddy and I even developed pneumonia. Daddy kept a fever for 17 days! My husband and I are very active, busy, constantly moving people, and this virus shut us down! But God’s hand of protection was ever present. Daddy had no fever yesterday, and he said he felt better than he had in a long while. We are off of quarantine, and I’ve been cleared to return to work. We have enjoyed a whole bunch of Hallmark movie time, and we even decorated early for Christmas. We’ve spent some good quality time together, and I’ve been able to visit my daddy almost daily. And there was no fear. I felt God’s presence, and I knew that He was taking care of us.
Yes, it’s been a crazy year, my friends, but although there have been a few bumps and bruises, there are so very many things to be thankful for. I pray that today and every day, you will see past the difficulties of the day. I pray that you see the good in each day, and that you recognize that there is always, always something to be thankful for! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Be thankful and blessed!
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 