My thoughts on Thanksgiving expressed creatively thanks to Wordle.com, 

click below, then come back!

Thanksgiving, thanks-living. . . 

In the USA we are celebrating thanksgiving this week. It is a time that is often hurried past in order to watch the latest sports event on t.v., hit the stores as early as possible, begin the decorating for Christmas. How very like us Americans, to rush through life, to rarely stop to experience today, to consider how blessed we are in our country. We have been given much.

I read a quote in an email / blog I receive daily. . . it stopped me dead in my tracks today.

"If tomorrow's supply depended on today's thanksgiving,

how much would I have tomorrow?"

Think on this.

I am grateful today for sounds, yes, sounds. For using Skype I was able to hear with my ears (and thus my heart) the voice of my granddaughter and daughter. I hadn't 'heard' them since their leaving the country last week. I was able to ask her questions, hear her answers, listen to her update, and know what are their current plans and prayer requests. It was music to my ears to hear the sound of Skype indicating an active connection on her end and a symphony when I heard her voice. 

It lasted 5 minutes but was precious!

We'll be spending our Thanksgiving meal with my step-mom and her family. We are SO grateful for their invitation; it was timely! They are warm welcoming people. They are truly family to us. I'll be baking rolls, taking a cranberry salad, and perhaps something else, I'm waiting to decide. We'll share not only the meal but love and celebrate with grateful hearts what God has done for us, what He is doing in us, what He will do in the days ahead. Having them to share this holiday with means a lot to our family as things have changed in recent years and we are seeking direction for how to celebrate, with whom to celebrate, etc. 

The baton has been handed to us and God is leading.

I'll be working Thanksgiving and the rest of the week.  I'm praying to provide encouragement and loving touches to the patients and fellow staff members I'll contact. I pray for a thankful heart that is demonstrated by my words, attitude, and actions. I know that its not the usual to choose to have elective surgery during Thanksgiving week - so I'm sensitive to that fact. Some come because they have no one to be with this holiday and 'might as well get the surgery over'; they get through it and get the attention of the staff. 

Today I choose to be thankful and to consider what I am thankful for, who I am thankful for, 

and to express my gratitude to God and people to whom it is due.

Truth For Life

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:

compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of God - the Message - have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Colossians 3:12-17