Happy Thanksgiving Month

Happy Thanksgiving Month to each of You

I love the Thanksgiving season and I love how people are posting something they are thankful each day this month on Facebook.

I believe in being thankful.  I believe it is good for us.  I believe it pleases God. And yet, I am always aware of what a struggle it is for me.  When I want something in my house "just so" and then remember how so many people want enough food let alone a safe shelter I ask God to forgive me and to help me be more thankful.  Recently I have been aware of my struggle to be thankful as the sound of Chuck's walker has gotten louder.  I am so thankful someone invented walkers and Chuck is able to use one.  Yet the sound can be grating; I know it is louder because Chuck is having to put more weight on his arms and so the sound is a reminder of loss.  This Thanksgiving season I am reminded of how much I have to be thankful for and yet also of how very much we live in a fallen world and experience losses we were never meant to experience.

We are very thankful my brother Albert's body was found at the end of Sept. and that his skeleton was intact and unharmed by animals.  So many families do not get closure when a loved one is missing and we are thankful that we were able to have a graveside service for him and spend time together as family.  We continue to be thankful for the amazing miracle of Rita's rescue after 49 days and how God is helping her walk the path she is now on.

We are thankful for "our" deer.  The autumn is usually the only season we get to see bucks and we have seen more this year than any other.  This week a buck decided to rub his antlers on a small pine tree - this meant watching him get a branch stuck in his antlers and then vigorously rubbing on the tree to dislodge the branch.  Before the branch was dislodged many other branches were broken off and the tree was bent over to the ground.  Now our pine tree has a totally different silhouette.  We actually like the new one (although we do miss some branches from other trees which have been pruned by deer in the past).  Not only do we get a front row seat to the mini-drama - the buck seemed close at about 35 feet but we get to interact in the drama and encourage him with lincreasingly loud sounds to stop once the branch was dislodged.  I told Chuck instead of spending money on tickets for concerts we can spend money on plants and have our own personal showing to a deer drama!

Our house remodelling is a drama in itself.  If it were a show we were watching we would call it a comedy but since it is happening to us sometimes we fail to see the humor.  In other words, no progress yet unless like Thomas Edison we are finding multiple ways that will not work.

Please pray that God would encourage us as Chuck is slowing down and life is a bit harder.  Please join with us in praying this prayer from Eph 3:14-19.  "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strenghtened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." 
Thank you for your faithfulness in lifting us up.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving Month to Each of You!!