Don't Forget Thanksgiving - Like Me!

This morning in church someone spoke about being thankful to God. Now, we all know how important that is. We all know that God loves to hear us thank Him for what He's done for us, but I think sometimes we take it for granted and forget to actually do it! To the stresses of our normal lives, add the current economic and political stresses and wow, we sure do have an overwhelming amount of concerns to face.

Sure, we're faithful to pray about those concerns and we work hard to overcome so much. But how much time do we spend thanking God for everything He's given us. Have we thanked Him lately for the freedom we enjoy in this country? How about our friends and families, for the food we have in our fridges, for the clean air we breathe, our faithful vehicles and the beauty of the earth? For flowers, for birds and butterflies. How about microwaves and washers and dryers, they're pretty wonderful too. When you think about it, there are so, so many things to be thankful for.

Even if you can't think of absolutely anything to be thankful for in your life, you can thank Him for Who He is, for His faithfulness, His beauty, His sacrifice, His love, His power!

In the midst of these challenging times, it's easy to get focused on hard things, but if we could just take our eyes off the challenges and onto the Lord of the challenges, it would be a huge step towards stress relief. God hasn't fallen off the throne. He still is the sovereign Lord of the universe and "holds the whole world in His hands"! Sure, He invites us to be involved through prayer and intercession for our world, but He still rules and reigns. Let's give Him a little credit and thank Him for our lives. I'm certainly going to try to remember to begin my prayer time with more thanksgiving.

Hey, do me a favor: Please write and remind me about this in about a week!

Japan!!!

I just returned home from a glorious visit with my beautiful daughter who lives in Japan. Her husband is in the Navy and so they are stationed there, although he spends more time at sea than at home. I often joke that my daughter is really stationed in Japan because she's the one who lives there full time.

While I was there, we visited Mt. Fuji and many other beautiful places. Japan truly is a breath taking nation, so lush and forested. And I love to observe the people when I visit there, they are so shy and kind. While I was there, each morning I would walk my daughter's two sheba inu dogs around her hilly neighborhood and try to get acquainted with her Japanese neighbors. I would try using the few basic phrases that my daughter and son-in-law have taught me but I have a feeling that behind my back, the Japanese nationals were giggling at my silly pronunciations. It doesn't really matter though, over all I have such great memories of this beautiful and intriguing land.

What a blessing to be able to visit my daughter and the foreign nation that she lives in. Thank you, God, for continuing to care for me and give me so many precious gifts. You are truly awesome!!