Not ready to rumble

I am thankful for family peace. Most of the time we do not have a lot of bickering and sniping amongst the people in my family. We seem to be able to get along without destructive words and hurtful comments. I am thankful for the love and support my immediate family members give me. The absence of constant arguing and undercutting is appreciated.

A new day is here!

I am thankful today is a new day. Yesterday I made a mistake and did something I shouldn't have done. I told myself not to do it, but I did it anyways. I should have relied on God to give me the strength to not fail again. Instead I relied on me. Now I have a new day and a new chance to trust in God and rely upon Him to help me avoid doing things that harm me and those around me. I always seem to fail me, God always seems to give me strength. It is so obvious that I should trust Him, yet there I went again. Thinking I could do something for myself. Trust in God. My Hope and my Forgiver. Thank You Lord for giving me another chance.

Second chances

I am thankful for second chances. Mistakes happen in my life on a regular basis. Most of my mistakes are relatively minor. The most common mistake is when I sin deliberately, knowing better, because I want to. I don't do what most people would consider major sins, like murder or rape or robbing banks. Yet each mistake I make and each sin I commit takes me further away from God. Each sin affects my relationship with Jesus and my relationships with those who are closest to me in negative ways. I am thankful that God gives me a second chance each time I fail. When I repent He forgives me and washes away my guilt. The results of my errors are still there, but now I have a chance to make new decisions. I can choose to do the right things and follow God's law for me. I can choose to rebuild the broken relationships. Jesus has already chosen to rebuild His relationship with me at any time I will open my heart to Him, so I always have a second chance with Him.

Is spelling optional?

I am thankful for the ability to communicate through writing. I am not a particularly good writer, but I am able to read and usually understand what others say and I can usually write things that others can understand. It is handy to be able to write a letter or an email and communicate a need or a message to others and not have to be face to face with them to communicate. Writing things gives me time to organize my thoughts and think through what I want to say and even occasionally to revise what I write to better communicate the ideas I have. I am thankful that God has communicated with me through His written word. At any time I can open His word and the Holy Spirit can embed His message in my heart through the reading of that which God had written long ago.

Rainy days are best when you sleep in

I am thankful for occasionally being able to sleep late. Most days I get up at 4 AM or 5 AM, and rarely as late as 6 AM. Then on Sunday mornings I might wake up at 5:30 to check the temperature and rain gauge, then slip back into bed and sleep till 8 AM or even 8:30 AM. Ah, it is deliciously decadent! I know in theory that I would be better off to go to bed and rise every day at the same times. I am not sure why I enjoy the sleeping in till 8, when its not cloudy the sun shinning outside will usually wake me up. I can just check the time, roll over and go back to sleep. Breakfast can wait a little longer.

Unappreciated Jeremiah

I am thankful for stories in the Bible that help put things in my life in perspective. I am currently feeling unappreciated in a certain area of my life. I feel that I have something to offer others that would be a blessing to them in this area, but not only do those people not seem to want my help, a few individuals apparently are doing everything they can to make sure I don't help anyone in this area even in a small way. Like I said, I am not feeling appreciated. I am studying the book of Jeremiah. Like so many of God's prophets, he was not appreciated. God gave him a message and he faithfully repeated it. If the people of his day had listened and taken it to heart, they would have lived and the nation of Judah would not only have not been destroyed in gruesome horribleness, Judah and its people would have had a prosperous peace with God's blessings flowing through them to the nations around. The rulers and people of Judah didn't listen. They also didn't want to have God's message spoken around them, they preferred to hear the lies of false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear. So they plotted to have Jeremiah killed and did everything they could to make his life miserable. Even the folks in his home town plotted to do him in. I can imagine there were days that Jeremiah felt very unappreciated. Probably even questioned whether what he was doing was from God. God had given him very clear instructions to keep giving God's word to Judah, so Jeremiah kept on being faithful and doing what God wanted. Kind of puts my problem in a different light. No one is trying to kill me. No one is shouting at me to shut up. No one is accusing me of treason just because I am doing what God tells me to do. Since I don't have a clear word from God to do what I think would be helpful in this area, I am just going to back off. If I get a clear message from God, I hope I will have the courage to do what God wants me to do, otherwise I'll just leave it in His hands.

A tree falls and I'm not around

I am thankful for the ability to hear. Hearing sound is a practical way to acquire knowledge and perspective, brings useful information into one's brain and can also bring pleasure. Sounds are always around me, loud sounds, piercing sounds, soft sounds, voices of those I love, voices of those who nag, voices of cows bellowing, shrill sounds, wailing sounds, soothing sounds, whispers in the trees, startling clunks or whams, sharp retorts of gunfire, roars of blasting explosions, peals of thunders, voices of irritation, chirping sounds of insects, mewing sounds of a kitten, raucous sounds of laughter, the sound of the trilling brook through the valley, the quiet drone of the professor in the classroom, the cover your ears whine of a jet engine, the snap crackle snap crash of the sawn tree crashing, a voice that says I love you, a baby crying in the middle of church, a caw of a crow, a warning wail of the ambulance, the soft murmur of the voice of God on the top of the mountain. Sounds are everywhere affecting my life with information conscious and unconscious. I am thankful for the ability to hear.