Give Thanks

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also 

ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." -Colossians 3:15

I have finally finished the big Christmas letter and can get back to my other writing projects!

Tonight I would like to go back to yesterday, which was Thanksgiving. I really like this holiday, because it is so much more peaceful than any other holiday I know. We get to cook, eat, sleep, be with the family, and, of course, remember to give thanks to God for all He has given us!

Giving thanks is something we should do every day, but Thanksgiving day always provides us a sort of "refresher" course. It is important to be thankful for all we have, even the things that may not seem like "blessings" right now.

Yesterday afternoon while we were eating Mom's huge Thanksgiving meal with the family, we decided that for every negative thing a person said, we would think of something to be thankful for about the subject of the complaint.

"I don't like my teacher!"

"But you are thankful that she is willing to teach you every day at school!"

"This water smells like mold!"

"But we sure are thankful to have safe water to drink!"

"My tooth hurts!"

"But you're so lucky to have teeth so you can eat!"

"There's a twig in my stuffing."

"But I'm so glad to be able to eat such an amazing meal!"

Then the thanks just started coming:

"I'm thankful for the ribs that protect my heart."

"I'm thankful for the bonds between chemicals like hydrogen and oxygen."

"I'm thankful for my ability to release methane gas."

After the last one was thrown out there, we muttered in disgust before deciding that we would often be sick if our body did not complete such functions. The last ones may have seemed silly, but those three "thankful" comments made me stop and think about how much detail God put into His creation to make sure everything worked just perfectly. What would we do without our ribs? How would our body function if hydrogen and oxygen didn't come together to make water? Thanks be to Him for His wonderful creation!

It is easy to remember to give thanks for the big things in life: our family, our friends, our daily bread, our salvation, and our church. Certainly these are all very important and wonderful to have in life. As the Bible instructs, "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." (I Tim. 6:8)

When God has given us so much more than we need, we must give Him thanks! What about my car? I forgot to give thanks for my car until I started having troubles with it and realized I couldn't go to college without it. Water? I forgot to give thanks for fresh available water until it became moldy and I had to remember to appreciate the safe drinking water we have in America. Health? I forgot to give thanks for my health until I got a small cold and realized how much better my lot is than many people in hospital beds this Thanksgiving.

Instead of allowing discontentment to drown our usefulness for the Lord, let us GIVE THANKS to Him for his wonderful grace and provision for our lives!

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God 

in Christ Jesus concerning you." -I Thessalonians 5:18

This Thanksgiving holiday, the Massner family went to church, where we got to see Aunt Diane, Aunt Angie, and our cousin Jake. When we got home, Mom finished making an amazing Thanksgiving dinner for the eight of us to share. She had turkey, gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, raspberry tapioca salad, lettuce salad, pumpkin pie, and chocolate mousse pie. The meal was absolutely delicious! Dad said it made his list of Mom's top 100 meals, but then we changed it to the top ten. Of course, we were stuffed at the end. After cleaning up and napping for a bit, we went over to Peoria to visit Grandma and ordered pizza for supper. We spent the evening there and got home late last night. 

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!