Thanksgiving

We're decorating for Christmas, but folks are still asking me if i had a good Thanksgiving. Hence, this post. I love Christmas, but Thanksgiving has got to be the very best holiday in the world. Thanksgiving....You can’t even say the word without being grateful.

Very early in our marriage, Duane and I adopted a principle for living on the planet: “Everything I have, I have because God has given me.” Sometimes the “everything” didn’t seem like very much. Sometimes it has seemed bountiful beyond our imaginations. More often than not, tears well up in our eyes because we are so astounded at His Providence. And we’ve always found ourselves with enough….Maybe not as the world counts it, but we’ve always had what we needed. The kids might have not thought so growing up, but we never sent them to bed hungry, we never sent them to school naked, and they’ve never been homeless. Maybe our house wasn’t as fancy as someone else’s, but their friends were always welcome there, and I usually set an extra plate for dinner just in case one of them stopped by. Maybe our yard didn’t get yard of the month one single time, but it was the “gathering place” and the neighborhood kids still hang out on in our porch swing that dangles from the big live oak in the side yard. Maybe having things isn’t what it’s really all about after all. Because it’s not ours to begin with.

“Be ye glad” is an old Acapella song that keeps flickering around in my brain this "Thanksgiving". The words say something like this

Oh be ye glad, Oh, be glad.
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full
By the grace of the Lord
Be ye glad,
Be ye glad,
Be ye glad.

(I knew there was more to Thanksgiving than just turkey.)

Everything I have, I have because God has given me. (Contentment.) All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. (Providence.) Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. (Thanksgiving.)