Giving Thanks.

Growing up, we had, and continue to have a family tradition on Thanksgiving Day, of going around the table, having each person state what they are thankful for that year. For some reason, this seems to make everyone uncomfortable, and turns into a sarcastic joke-session! I look around at my mother, brothers and sisters with their respective beautiful families, and wonder why it is that they can't express their appreciation for all that they have been given and blessed with! I'm not judging, please understand, just curious about WHY they don't feel grateful? They all have great jobs, terrific kids who don't give them any trouble (!) and enjoy excellent health and financial prosperity. Oh, well. I guess sometimes we take these things for granted, and I'm certain I am sometimes guilty of the very same thing.

"So, Cindy, why are you focusing on Thanksgiving when it is only the end of August?"

Because I have SO MUCH to be thankful for, that I am just busting at the seams to express my eternal gratitude to the only one who deserves it. The One who makes it all possible. The One I cannot do a thing without! My Father, Comfortor, Savior and friend.

So, as I sit here in a wheelchair, recovering from 17 broken bones and pneumonia, having just gotten out of the hospital this past Thursday evening, I would like to take the time to THANK HIM.

"Thank Him?! For WHAT?! For letting you suffer?"

Please allow me to explain: God didn't cause my accident, nor did He sit and watch uncaringly as my lungs filled with fluid. Why would I be angry or bitter toward Him? We are not promised a perfectly happy life here on earth, free of any strife, illness, sadness, or even hang-ups!
What He DOES promise, and I receive this promise only because of my BELIEF and FAITH, and NOT because of anything I've done to DESERVE it, is to always be there with me to see me through even the most difficult of situations.

I'm sure that many of you have heard or seen the little story, on a keychain or surrounded by a picture frame perhaps, called "Footprints" or "Footprints in the Sand." For those of you who haven't, basically, it is a poem of sorts, by someone who says that when she is going through easy times, which I call "Mountaintops," she can look down in the sand and see two sets of footprints, her's and God's. But, when tmes get tough, when she goes through the real trials (Valleys, to me) she only sees ONE set of footprints! She asks God, "Why is it that in the worst of times, when I needed you the most, that I only see one set of footprints, and you are no longer walking beside me."

She writes God's answer in this very poignant way: Oh my child, my precious child...at those most difficult times, the times when you see only ONE set of footprints, it is those times that I CARRIED YOU.
Please understand that this is not a scripture passage, but something that someone who chose to remain anonymous, wrote, to express that GOD IS FAITHFUL. Tht despite our circumstances, and no matter that we have done absolutely nothing to deserve this awesome measure of His grace, He does promise in His Word that He "will never leave us or forsake us!"
He loved me before I even knew Him. He saved me from myself and my misguided ways.


He carried me....

So, Father God, I am here today to meet with you, to sit humbly at your throne of mercy and grace, where I dont' deserve to be, but where you give me the privilege to come and speak to and WITH you any time I care to or need to, and you will meet with me and hear my prayers.
I am ever so grateful for the incredible love you have shown me, even during my times of disbelief! I thank you for the time you gave me in the hospital, that even though I lied in bed most of the time, feeling ill in my physical body, that you allowed me to rise above my circumstances and remember that YOU ARE GOD, and YOU ARE ALL I NEED. To remind me that 'God, I CAN'T," but 'God, YOU CAN.' For the constant reminder that your grace is sufficient for me in any and all my situations, and that you have not changed your plan for my life that I WILL PROSPER and I WILL RISE ABOVE my circumstances, no matter how hopeless they may look to me or to others.
I will sing of my love...."You're all I want...You're all I ever needed. You're all I want. Help me know you are near."
Finally, Father, thank you for so many answered prayers, but mostly for one that I have prayed over and over and over again, for the past 15 years. It is my prayer you answered, that the Light of Your Son Jesus would SHINE through me, that others would see His light through the example in my own life, and that perhaps just one other life might be changed, even a tiny bit because of my testimony of what you have done for me. For I know I could not save myself, and I cannot save anyone else, but I can continue to sing of your love, with joy in my heart, and continue on my mission to bring as many people to Heaven with me as I possibly can. Please make me a blessing to someone today. In Jesus' name. Amen.