Thanksgiving...today and EVERYDAY

Today is the day that our country celebrates Thanksgiving. Has something to do with Pilgrims, Indians, turkeys and all that stuff.

That's all well and good, but for me Thanksgiving is more than just a day filled with too much food. It's even more than the time that I spend with my family.

Thanksgiving is a state of mind. In my mind, Thanksgiving is every day of the year. Every morning when I wake up, the first words out of my mouth are THANK YOU. Yes, I thank God each and every morning.

I thank him for opening my eyes and being able to see. For those who know me, eyesight is not something that I take for granted. After being threatened with the idea that my eyesight may one day be gone, I am truly thankful for every new day that God allows me to see.

But it doesn't just end there.

I'm thankful for every day that He gets me through at work. My job is mentally and emotionally challenging. If I had to do it alone I wouldn't make it. But because He's with me everyday, I am able to make it...one day at a time.

I'm thankful for Him being my provider when there isn't enough money (and there's never enough money. No, I'm not being greedy, and I'm not trying to have you feel sorry for me...I'm just keepin' it real and there's NEVER enough money).

I'm thankful for my children. All healthy, intelligent, and down right good people.

I'm thankful for relationships restored. I could go on and on about this one. In this area I can only say "Nobody but God". After hating and being hated by a particular individual, I realized that I had to give that person up and over to God. As soon as I did, I received such a sense of peace about that relationship. Didn't know what would come of it and had accepted the fact that it was just "over".

What I didn't realize until a year later was that God was working in that situation all along. And once I stepped out of it and gave it over to Him, He worked things out in a way that only He can.

Today, that person and I can actually speak to one another, be in the same room together, and even laugh together. Neither of us would have ever thought those things to be possible if it were up to us. But because we had nothing to do with it, and God had EVERYTHING to do with it, the impossible became reality.

Interestingly enough, that person invited me to have Thanksgiving with their family. I haven't done that in over 10 years and never dreamt that I'd be there again. I went, and had a great time. I could tell that I was more happy to be there than the person was to have me there, but that's okay. Just being there was more than I ever imagined would be.

So yes, on this day, I could go on and on about all that I'm thankful for. But because Thanksgiving is EVERYDAY for me I don't have to cram my thanks all into one day. I've got 364 more, and that's a good thing.

Let the DIALOGUE begin! What are you MOST thankful for on this day?

Talk to me!

Til next time...