One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

"Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name" (Psalm 103:1).

Today's Thanksgiving Day. I am overflowing with things to be thankful for. Our pastor preached this morning about the importance of being intentional about giving thanks. He explained how being grateful is "a spiritual exercise that acknowledges our dependency on an unseen God and as we give thanks for His presence and provisions, those become more real to us" (and so does God). As he read from Psalm 103:1-5, our pastor that first and foremost, we ought to give thanks for who God is. Then, everything else becomes more profound.

My gratitude list is not only mine, but it includes my family's list as well.
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-God knows what's best for us
-God's perfect will
-God and His salvation of us and my wife and all 4 of my children and that they love God (Paul's list)
-God and the Lord and my family (Curtis' list)
-Jesus, my Saviour and the Bible (Nicole's list)
-my friends and all the food we have (Jesse's list)

-God giving my husband the strength and confidence to pray in church this morning
-Paul's prayer:
"Lord, you are awesome and majestic, so it is with humble hearts that we come before your throne of grace in a prayer of thanksgiving for your gospel of reconciliation. Lord, we stand before your with hearts and lives that are burdened with the weight of our sinful nature. We thank you for opening our eyes to the way that we grieve you with each of our wrongdoings.

Thank-you for bringing people, circumstances, and events to our lives that reveal to us just how depraved we are. Through this revelation of depravity, you also bless us with the knowledge that we cannot do anything good on our own. Thank-you for our reliance on your grace as the only means to set us free from the captivity of our sin.

Thank-you also for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who sets us eternally free from the guilt of our sin. Thank-you for our assurance of salvation through the cross of Christ.

Lord, please work in our hearts, minds, and hands each day, that we will be led by you to live lives of faith in Christ. We pray that you will open our eyes to ways that we can bring the gratitude of our hearts out in the actions of our hands.

Please reveal to us ways that we can glorify you through our lives, and give us the faith, confidence, and courage to act on those revelations. Amen"

-our niece's wedding this past weekend

-brother and sister together on the spelling bee team and winning first place!


-ability to run and participate in cross country

-extended family

-fall colours

-group hike

-amazing Mother and Father-in-law -their love of the outdoors and hiking

-51 years of marriage

-older cousins

-grasshoppers

-great host and hostess

-Thanksgiving decorations (not mine, but my very talented sister-in-law)

-eating outside

-leaves falling everywhere

-son listening to a suggestion from our pastor and leaning over, "Mom, we should do that!"

-siblings playing together

-charts and schedules