A Reason for Thanksgiving

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Today's Passage: Psalm 65
Memory Verse: Ps. 65:11

Only a week or so after the season of thanksgiving, and already it seems so hard to focus on things to be thankful about.  I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but the time of year that should be the most peaceful and enjoyable starts becoming ho-hum and not-so-jolly. To tell you the truth, I'd love to blame the enemy with his self-centered distractions which make it hard for believers to see and feel the good that God has placed around us.  But if you really want to be honest, you'll admit it's our own desire to be served rather than to be servants that influences us to be ungrateful.

You know the kinds of things we complain about.  If you have young children, for example, there's always some service that 's in need of being rendered -- laundry to do, food to make, or an ongoing string of cleaning to take care of.  If you work outside the home, it's the nine-to-five that seems to keep us so unhappy.  After all, the rich and famous never seem to be doing anything.  They're always vacationing or doing something glamorous that we never get to do.  Not unless something extreme happens to someone we know do we stop to realize how blessed we are all year round.

Can you imagine life without the conveniences many of us take for granted?  I'm ashamed to say I've complained to myself quite a few times about having to do the laundry, when all i had to do was walk a few feet to the washing machine.  Then I took a trip back to Liberia, where 99 percent of the population still uses washboards and bare hands to wash clothes.  Here's the other privilege we're completely ignorant of. While we're looking for ways to get out of going to work, untold numbers there go to work everyday with hopes of only earning a paycheck every  3 or 4 months.

In a country such as Liberia, Christmas is a figment of the imagination.  Only the very well-off enjoy basic comforts, while everyone else finds a way to beg, borrow, or steal it from whomever.  With such a picture in mind, giving thanks for everything we take so lightly doesn't seem so hard, does it?

Prayer: Father, I want to ask You to forgive me once again for not remembering to thank You for things taken so lightly.  I offer You my praise for loving me and keeping me in the safety of your arms.  May my heart always be thankful .  In Jesus' Name, Amen.