Psalm 100:4-5 …… Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good and His mercy is everlasting. (NKJV)

Wow, time sure flew by. It wasn’t till last week when I realized that Thanksgiving was next week. I didn’t come to this realization on my own. My daughter picked me up on Monday to cash my husbands check and she mentioned how she had to get stuff for Thanksgivings. Ooops, I almost missed it.

As the years go by it seems as if Thanksgiving and Christmas are here before we know it. This past year for the most part have been uneventful. Now watch something crazy happen. Because nothing major happened besides a couple of hospitalizations, it was a pretty good year overall.

I’m not really a person that goes all out for the holidays. I enjoy decorating for Christmas. I will be putting some Christmas decorations up this year. We celebrate Christmas at Easter, but I will decorate in a low-keyed manner during the Christmas season.

Christmas seems to be on everyone’s minds, but for some reason Thanksgiving get’s lost. For me, Thanksgiving falls where it should. It is a good reminder of what I’m thankful for. If it wasn’t for my faith in God, I don’t think I would be thankful for much. There are many who feel that Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for everything we have. But, I personally feel that in all things we should be thankful, good and bad. Even though it is hard to be thankful and grateful when things are going bad.

There seems to be a growing mentality when it comes to what it means to be thankful and grateful. We humans have a way of thinking that everything is better on the other side of the fence. Instead of being grateful and thankful, we grumble about everything we don’t have. I have been guilty of this also. As I get older I have found I am more grateful, but it wasn’t an easy process to get to this point.

Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. (NKJV)

It isn’t an easy process to be content and thankful for thing things we have been given. It took me a very long time to get to the point of  where I must be thankful for all things that God has blessed me with, even in the worst of circumstances.

There are some days, weeks and years that are worse than others. It is during those days when I just want to throw in the towel.  It would be easy for me to just give up when bad things happen. Many have asked me how I deal with the things I deal with health wise and the only answer is because of my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I don’t know how people go through life without God.

I honestly feel that it is important for us to go through dark days and the losses we experience. Of course I hate going through tragic loss and hard times, but, maybe it’s important for us to go through them so we can realize how important the blessings and good things are. It’s because of these dark days and losses that I’m grateful for what God has done in my life.

Thanksgiving is a great time to encourage each other and remember the things we should be thankful for and grateful for.  Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to thank God for His grace and mercy, and a time to remind ourselves that we shouldn’t be taking God for granted.

(Psalm 100:4)   “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.”

What I’m Thankful For;

• My family: I have the most awesome daughters and grandkids. I also have a patient husband who puts up with the things I like to do, even though he doesn’t enjoy it (i.e. decoration for Christmas).
• A roof over my head and food on my table.
• The freedoms I have due to those are fighting for those freedoms such as religion, speech and a whole bunch of other things.
• My mouthy pugs
• Awesome and crazy friends
• My church family
• God’s undeserved love, grace and mercy

The other day, I was watching a video that a church in Charlotte put out. It was geared towards Christmas and all of the gifts and blessings we have received in our lives.

• Click here if you want to read the article.  
•  Here is the link to the video on youtube.

I wanted to leave you all this last message.  The most important thing that I am grateful for is that we have never had to earn God’s love. God loved us all before we loved Him.  God says “Your guilt is all paid for in Jesus Christ”. “Thank you!” When I think of everything I can be grateful for, it is that Jesus paid the ultimate price for my sins and He has paid for your sins as well.

God didn’t need to forgive us. He didn’t have to send His only begotten Son to die for our sins, but He did. God wasn’t under any obligation to save us. But because He loves us, He has chosen to save us.