Thanksgiving

How is your heart today?
What is your family doing for Thanksgiving?
Are you thankful?

This morning as I watch the sunrise through my kitchen window I am battling discouragement. That weariness of heart and mind that threatens to rob us of our joy and make us forget the good things we have in Christ.

There is a part of me wanting to cling onto the images of a nostalgic Norman Rockwell painting with smiling faces sitting around a large table and the father carving the turkey. But, holidays don't always look the way Norman Rockwell painted them.

We have two family members in the hospital that are usually sitting with us at our Thanksgiving table. My husband's aunt is in ICU after her second heart attack and second stint surgery in a week. His brother suffered an aneurysm behind his eye last week followed by a perforated colon. They had to remove part of his colon last Thursday. My brother-in-law is out of ICU, but still in the hospital with a long recovery ahead.

If we are in Christ we have much to be thankful for even when life looks more like the first chapter of Job then that nostalgic Norman Rockwell painting.

When I am discouraged instead of thankful here are some passages to which I flee seeking God's strength to help me take those discouraging thoughts captive.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Psalm 69:30

I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Make today a day of praise and thankgiving.