Thanksgiving

The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

This is my first blog in over a year and let me just say I am PUMPED about
it! I've missed blogging. :) So let's just get right to it!

Today I drove home from visiting some friends and family in Batesville, AR. I woke up around 7:30 and left my friend Courtney's house at 8:15 to make the 2 1/2 hour drive home to Malvern. The first thing I saw was the fog rising in front of a bright sunrise over a pond. I couldn't help but pull over, get out of my car and take pictures (I was eager to post them to instagram). I was at a loss for words. All I could see was the beauty of God's majesty, written by nature, and I made a decision at that point that no matter what happened today, good or bad, I would be okay and happy because I know how big my God is.

Well, it just so happened that my Thanksgiving Day became one for the books. I received my first ticket ever for speeding on the interstate, then later that evening after standing in line for 2 hours at Wal-Mart for this laptop I'm using, the wheel of my mom's car came off in the gas station parking lot. We then had to weight there for approximately an hour and a half for the wrecker. However, this wasn't just a bad night. It may have been one of the greatest blessings ever.

God revealed a mystery to me today. It was the mystery of true thanksgiving. Truly giving thanks isn't throwing up a prayer every  now and then to God when you get an iPad or a good grade or some extra money. Truly giving thanks is thanking God for the fact that you got a speeding ticket instead of hospital bills. That you are able to stand in a Black Friday line for a laptop, instead of scrounging money together for your next meal. That the wheel of your car came off in the parking lot of a gas station instead of on the freeway.

Giving thanks isn't about throwing up a thanks when something extraordinary happens. Being thankful is saying thank you daily, because even though life may be rough, there is always something to be thankful for, and things could always, always, ALWAYS be worse. The truly grateful person is able to say thank you to God, daily.

"I will thank the Lord because He is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High." -Psalms 7:17

Dannah Banana