Category: Thanksgiving (page 1 of 1)

Do you consider yourself a patient person? Do you get comments on how well you handle a situation in such a patient manner? I am maybe just marginally better than average at this point in my life. I used to have virtually no patience when it came to dealing with people, especially the ones I thought of as being quite close to moronic.

Patience is listed as one of the  character qualities that He seeks to build in our hearts during our time on earth. I raised four kids and dealt with lots of childish behavior and learned that children basically have no patience … zero.  And that is part of what we as parents try to teach our kids while also dealing with our own lack of patience! Now, four kids are plenty to deal with, but He has millions! Just thinking about that fact gave me shivers. How does He do it?

One night I happened to catch a clip of the news showing violent rioting by a mob of people whose sole intent was to destroy property of innocent people. I was so angry with them that I had to turn it off. I have no patience with that kind of behavior. I walked outside under the stars and it struck me that God has no off button. He says He sees and hears everything! I watched 15 minutes of awful behavior and had to shut it down.

Which leads me to ask you a question: If you were forced to watch the horrendous acts of Man committed in the darkness against the innocents in a video loop, how long could you watch it? Could you watch it again the next night, and the next? My guess is, no, you would not. He does, moment by moment, every hour, every day. How does He not say, “Enough! Project is now ended! The darkness of Man is now beyond My capacity to endure another moment” Why does He not say that?

Actually, there was a moment in time when God almost ended us. Did you know that? The story is told in Genesis 6:5-8. 

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil.  And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy and wipe away mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and all creatures, for it grieves Me that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

Because of one righteous man, God spared the rest of mankind and gave them a chance to repent while Noah built his boat. God’s love for one family kept Him from blowing away His project of building His own family. His patience was tested, but love kept you and I from being non-existent. Do you now like Noah?

I give thanks to God for the righteous men and women who live in our present time, people who love God and find favor in His eyes. It appears that is the only reason for God to continue to be patient in the midst of the darkness He is forced to observe every moment of every day. I am so very thankful to Him for His mysterious love.  I may not always be patient, but now I know why He is …

In The Thanksgiving Handbook I discuss what I call “the magical life-changing power” of giving thanks. Now, I hesitated to use the word ‘magic’ because it is over-used and misunderstood by most folks. But, the word does mean something to every person. For me, it means seeing something that I find hard to put into words. We have all had experiences that are hard to convey in words to another person. But if you say to them, “It was a magical moment”, they will most likely understand.

I remember the first time I saw a Humpback whale leap out of the water in front of my skiff and come crashing down so close, that the spray got my face wet. Magical moment. When the Americans beat the Russians in hockey in the 1980 Olympics, that was a magical moment and hard to explain to someone who did not see it. I once held a hummingbird feeder in my hand and had a dozen hummingbirds buzzing my face and landing on my hands at the same time. Trust me, it was a magical moment.

I remember one time when I was up early and fixing myself breakfast in the kitchen. The house was quiet while everyone slept. Then, just as I finished scrambling some eggs, I heard a shuffling sound behind me. I turned and here was my 18 month old daughter, Corrie, crawling up behind me with a big smile. She had followed the sound and the smells to find me. I picked her up and we both sat down for some breakfast together. She was quiet as we ate, but it seemed to me that she thought it was special to be having breakfast alone with dad, just as I did. And yes, it was a magical moment for me.

Now, when I tell people that Thanksgiving can have magical moments, they usually respond with a look of “Huh? Oh, you mean like a close finish to the football game?” No, I mean during our time of recalling together our past year that was peppered with personal moments of receiving a special gift of blessing. But unless you make room in your Day for sharing together, you will miss out on hearing about those moments. And that, again, is why we keep our “Thankful Moments Journals”. They assist us in recalling those blessings.

In His Word, God shares the fact that there is power in His words and in our obedience to His words. At one spot, he says that His Word is “An anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Now, His words mean nothing, they hold no power, unless we, by faith, act upon them. Think of it like this: you can stand at the plate with a bat in your hands, but if you never swing it, you will not know the power of the bat. Even so, we must swing the bat in obedience to His promises. And one of those promises is that acting on His words can anchor our soul during a time of emotional storm.

All of us experience stormy days, either at work or at home. We have days filled with disappointments, sickness, mean words, betrayals, and depression. Some folks have such a stormy day that they choose to sink their ship by taking their own life. What if they could have just gotten through that day. Would they maybe have gone on to live a full and rewarding life? Maybe if they could have just anchored their heart during a storm, they would have come through the moment as a stronger person. And how do I anchor myself? By responding to His Word with action.

When He says, “In everything, give thanks”, he means in every situation, during every storm and every magical moment. So, let’s create a stormy moment. A loved one is desperately ill, and may lose their life. You are at the hospital and you are torn up emotionally; so much so that you cannot focus on any one thing. Your mind and heart are “tossed, to and fro”. The storm has hit and you are without an anchor. What should you do? Who can assist you? God can, but how? By you doing what he asks you to do: be thankful for the moment. Excuse Me! Be thankful? Yes, be thankful. Send off a prayer of thanks that this person who means so much to you is still with you and has blessed your life. Be thankful you are alive and have known them and are now available to ask for their healing. Be thankful for how this storm has revealed how deeply you love them. And express your thanks that God has His eye on them at this exact moment, just like He does with every sparrow that flies His sky and sometimes falls to the ground.

He promises that if you will express your thanks for the moment, He will anchor your soul in the midst of the storm. And storms always pass, usually followed by bright sunshine and calm. Trust me when I say that this can become a magical moment for you, one that you will want to record and save for your time of sharing with your friends on Thanksgiving…