Don't leave God and the Bible at Home Tomorrow

I just found out this ad existed. It shocked me to see it is supported by the President of the United States. If you live with the Bible as your guidebook for life, you need to watch this. We cannot leave the God and the Bible out of the election tomorrow. Some may think this ad is funny. I just find it sad.

Thanking Creator God

Living life in grateful response comes in recognizing who God is. With the awareness of God involved in every detail of my life, gratitude becomes part of a necessary relationship. Running a 5K becomes a conversation with Creator God as amazement of His design allows me to cross the finish line. The friends that join me as well as those who cheer me on are part of His workmanship to spur me on. These relationships are there to remind me of something greater.

The beauty of nature washes over my senses ushering me into the presence of God as I offer up praise to Him. Changing seasons with varying colors and temperatures along with the rejuvenation of the darkness of night and the sunlight of day are His gifts. A tapestry is woven together by the artist, God.

As I look at my family, overwhelmed with gratitude for the love surrounding me, I cannot help but thank God because it is He who made them. They are His blessings to me. Even the simplicity of a Saturday where no commitments are on the calendar points me toward my Heavenly Father. Relaxing with my husband and children can be embraced because He instituted rest.

If we are offering up thanksgiving without a thought of God, can it still be considered giving thanks? Who are we giving thanks to? What is thanksgiving without acknowledging The-All-Deserving-One-of-our-Thanks?

(The creation account in the Book of Genesis)

"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen" - Romans 1:25

Why Thanksgiving?

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.  

A Proclamation.   

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.  

 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

 

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.  

 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.  

 

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

 

 By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Grateful Response

Halloween has barely left our doorstep and Christmas music pulls at my heartstrings as I shop today. I don’t like the way this world pushes us past the beauty of November. This month is my favorite. I’m like my kids in that way. They would each choose the month of their birthday as well.

It’s more than that. Thanksgiving has an entire day set aside for gratitude. We humans have learned to feel a sense of entitlement for everything in our lives. It is so easily forgotten that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

This November, my challenge is not to set aside one day to give thanks (although I LOVE that we have a day set aside for this.) Rather, I want myself and those I love to realize that life is to be lived in grateful response for what God has done for us. Let’s truly acknowledge Him and thank Him for who He is: Creator, Father, Redeemer, Savior, Friend, etc.

In learning to live a lifestyle of grateful response to God, will we not also find the joy-filled life we so desperately search for?

“Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God.” (Psalm 50:14)

“Giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.” (Psalm 50:23)

 

Choices

 

Everything in me wanted to yell at her for not being responsible. This I why she is not allowed to watch television in the morning before school anymore (previously it was a reward to get her moving). If she hadn't sat there watching the show her little sister had on... I had to remind her twice to put her shoes on... Allowing her to ride the scooter around waiting for the bus probably wasn't a good choice...

The moment we saw the bus approaching I looked into my oldest' bewildered face as she exclaimed "Oh, man. My flute!" I responded with my immediate thought, "Run!" I'm still shaking my head over the situation. Did I really ask the bus driver if she would wait? I need to remember to buy that woman a special thank you gift. I can't believe she actually waited.

Waiting always makes the time move at a snail's pace. I had put her sister on the bus and then pulled her off because I didn't want to inconvenience everyone else. As we began to walk away, the bus driver beeped the horn and pointed down the street. I don't think I've ever seen my child sprint in her life - until now. I seriously need to remember to be grateful for this woman who transports my children to school every day. It's so easy to focus on the negative situations involving the bus. Mental note: Do not forget this moment.

Like every morning, my daughters are both on the bus off to school. This is the way our mornings usually play out... but I'm struggling with my emotions. Every time I attempt to be a "yes" mom, it seems to bite me in the butt. The cancelation of band practice yesterday allowed us to embrace other choices for our time. These unplanned activities were good and in the moment, I was certain this is how motherhood worked.

Last night, I had made a mental note to have my daughter pull out her flute and music when she got home from a school activity she went to with friends. The little ones were tucked in bed and I needed to just go over her homework one more time. Notes needed to be written for the next day and put in their folders, the dishwasher had to be loaded and started so lunches could be packed... the instrument left my mind... until this morning at the bus stop.

While everything in me wants to lecture my 10-year-old on irresponsibility, I'm going to choose grace. Just as I made the choice to embrace life with my children yesterday, it is my decision how I respond to this situation. I forgot. She forgot. We all make mistakes. This wasn't sinful. It was simply a little bit out of our routine. No harm done.

Pulling out note cards with the verses I was meditating on this morning reminds me that this is the choice God wants me to make.

"Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back." - Proverbs 29:11 (NLT)

“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? ⁷ You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” - Genesis 4:6,7 (NLT)

"Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." - James 1:19 (NLT)