Dear Ones,
A blessed Thanksgiving Day to each of you. Thank you for prayers as we made it safely to Olathe, KS yesterday afternoon in rain and lots of traffic. We had a feast for supper with our son’s family and time to catch up. Today we are going to have another feast at Devon’s grandparent’s house with his family and all of us.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Happy Thanksgiving Day and a blest day as you celebrate whether it be alone or with family and friends. In a real sense, every day should be Thanksgiving Day as we express our gratitude to the Lord for all His many blessings to us, starting with the gift of life itself. It is good to give thanks and we are told over and over in scripture to do so. Way back in I Chron. 16:34 we read a few words from the song sung by Levites, “O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever.” President George Washington in 1789 set aside the 4th Thursday of November for our nation to give thanks to the Lord and also to ask for pardon and forgiveness. It is a good thing to do both even today as we celebrate for His gifts to us have been many but also the ways we have transgressed have been many.

I was reading on crosswalk.com about Professor of psychology, Robert Emmons, who has done research on how gratitude affects our lives. He said that when we express our gratitude, we reap benefits like a lower blood pressure, better sleep, more joy and pleasure, more compassion, stronger immune system, and less loneliness. He said just writing down a list of what we are grateful for seems to help us be more optimistic and to feel better. Even in our workplaces, gratitude helps workers to be more effective in their jobs and get along better with coworkers. Grateful people are also healthier with less visits to the Doctor.

All these reasons are well in good but let us thank the Lord because He is so worthy of praise and thanks. Let us daily be people of gratitude and thanksgiving that our hearts may be changing to be more like the Lord. I will close by a prayer of Pastor Mark Roberts,
“Gracious God, you deserve our thanks because of your inestimable goodness to us. Our giving of thanks recognizes your grace and honors your goodness. Plus, it’s just plain polite.
Yes, in your goodness, you have made us so that when we express thanks we also benefit. There’s no way we can ever out-give you, Lord. Even when we thank you, we are blessed.
May my life be filled with gratitude, not just this week but every week. To you be all the glory, Amen.”

Challenge for today:  Take some time to just express your thanks to the Lord and share with someone else something you are thankful for.
Blessings on your Thanksgiving and prayers and love, Judy