WHO DO WE THANK?

Mark and me with our eight children at our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

Second only to my great thankfulness to God for His amazing grace in my life is my gratitude to Him for my husband and eight children. Recently, when we celebrated 50 years of marriage we were blessed to have all of our children, grandchildren and our dear little great granddaughter together here in Gig Harbor. No doubt that day ranks as one of the happiest of my life; I felt like a queen! The greatest reality of that day was to be aware that it was possible only because of God’s blessing in my life. He gave me Mark (my husband) and He gave me my wonderful children, and their spouses, and their children. The whole day was just full of evidence of God’s goodness to me. And so we must conclude that He deserves all the thanks and appreciation for the gifts He has given. My heart is full of gratitude to Him.

With Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday there may be many people expressing thanks with no real recipient in mind for who should be receiving that thanks. Appreciation needs someone to receive it. Do we really have any blessings in life that are not from God? Let’s not be rude in neglecting to acknowledge the One who daily pours blessings out upon our lives.

“…giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,...”

(Ephesians 5:20)

ARE WE THANKFUL ABOUT EVERYTHING?

A really big table is set at our house at Thanksgiving time.  We celebrated with the Suko side of the family this past Saturday with 32 (including 12 children) at our house for turkey and all the fixings.  I particularly love this time of year because of the emphasis on giving thanks that is bound to bring joy to the truly grateful soul.

In our increasingly secular society have we lost sight of honestly being thankful to God for everything.  We sort out prosperity and health as things we give thanks for.  But in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 it says to " ...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." We must never forget that God is totally in control of everything and He allows easy times and hard times all for our benefit and His glory.  Actually, even though we would never ask God for difficulties, we know that those are the times we seek His face the most and rely on Him the more deeply.  And so, these are really the best of times--the times we need to be the most thankful.  For sure in eternity the hard days of the past will shine the brightest as God's goodness to us.

Let's enjoy this Thanksgiving being thankful about everything.