Thankfulness
I can't believe I missed it, but it's November! You know what that means? The month for thankfulness posts. Maybe I was distracted by the elections. But now that that circus is over, we can go on praying to the Lord, (Our ONLY hope for the future) that He will bless and direct our leaders that we may live in peace.
I dedicated Election day to prayer because, well, the Bible tells us that instead of being anxious we should petition the most high God, with thanksgiving. Maybe that is why in a day dedicated to beseeching God, he put thankfulness upon my heart.
When I look around me at the path our nation has taken, my heart aches for our future. We need Jesus! But when I took a day to spend with him, I was overwhelmed by gratitude. This was even in the midst of thinking that the election result would likely be one that would make me sick to my stomach.
I looked at my beautiful blond-haired girl running through our back yard; she herself is a prayer answered, a promise fulfilled by my Maker. In a rare moment of warm autumn sunshine, I saw my sweet, filthy faced, tackle-like-hug-giver of a son chasing his sister across the green grass . I watched my children play in our back yard, with a tree house that my husband built, because we live in a land where people can be free, where we can own land, have a business and prosper.
From the over-sized window of a warm kitchen, in a turn-of-the-century home, built by a banker over 100 years ago, I had the privilege to observe my children, because the land in which I live has been safe and prosperous for decades. I have not been left with the war torn ravages of a country decimated by fighting. I have never feared that my children and I would be blown up on a walk to the park.
I walked out onto the hill in front of my house and lifted my hands in prayer to an almighty God that he would have mercy on our city, and on our nation, which suffers under the weight of corrupt darkness. I was free to shout my cries to heaven without fear that I would be arrested, without worry that someone would attempt to silence me or persecute me for my belief that Christ is the only answer.
On a day of fasting when I felt an uncommon hunger, I thanked God that my children had never known hunger that comes from an entire day with no food. I was overcome with thankfulness that I have never had to make mud into cakes to try to soften the aches of my children's bellies. I had never had to forage for bugs to feed them, or sell my body to save my children from starvation.
We just have it so, so, so good in America. So good. So so so good. God forgive us for so freely receiving the blessings of your hand on our nation, which has provided safety, prosperity, and freedom, while denying you as the source of this blessing. Every good and perfect gift is from you.
So today's thankful, is America. I am thankful that I get to live in this grand experiment of democracy. It is a glorious gamble that rests upon the minds and hearts of the American people, and upon the generous goodness of our Benevolent Father. I am thankful for those who have given their lives for this cause of freedom. There have been centuries of them now, people of all races, colors, and religions. Men in tights, combat boots, jail cells; women in hoop skirts, fearsome preachers, the misunderstood, the marginalized, the scared and the hopeful; America has a great and beautiful history of people who have stood up to fight for the cause of freedom. They have been willing to risk their very lives, and for that I am truly thankful. They have done their part, now the rest is up to us.
I dedicated Election day to prayer because, well, the Bible tells us that instead of being anxious we should petition the most high God, with thanksgiving. Maybe that is why in a day dedicated to beseeching God, he put thankfulness upon my heart.
When I look around me at the path our nation has taken, my heart aches for our future. We need Jesus! But when I took a day to spend with him, I was overwhelmed by gratitude. This was even in the midst of thinking that the election result would likely be one that would make me sick to my stomach.
I walked out onto the hill in front of my house and lifted my hands in prayer to an almighty God that he would have mercy on our city, and on our nation, which suffers under the weight of corrupt darkness. I was free to shout my cries to heaven without fear that I would be arrested, without worry that someone would attempt to silence me or persecute me for my belief that Christ is the only answer.
On a day of fasting when I felt an uncommon hunger, I thanked God that my children had never known hunger that comes from an entire day with no food. I was overcome with thankfulness that I have never had to make mud into cakes to try to soften the aches of my children's bellies. I had never had to forage for bugs to feed them, or sell my body to save my children from starvation.
We just have it so, so, so good in America. So good. So so so good. God forgive us for so freely receiving the blessings of your hand on our nation, which has provided safety, prosperity, and freedom, while denying you as the source of this blessing. Every good and perfect gift is from you.
"It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
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