Giving Thanks~Happy Thanksgiving

Let us remember to give thanks to the Lord, for it is right to give Him thanks and praise.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you.

Thank you for my life. I am still alive to hear my children bicker and my husband shout. Thank you for my voice. I am still able to speak to grumble over housecleaning. I can still speak, sing, and argue with my husband and children. Thank you for my hands. I can still cook and type and write checks to pay the bills. Thank you for my husband. I don't deserve the wonderful man you gave me, I don't always appreciate him, but thank you for giving him to me, making him especially for me and thank you for helping him not give up on me when I am a pain. Thank you for my children. Thank you for their behavior, good and bad. Thank you for their trials to help them grow into better people and teach me to let go. Thank you for the dog. I am not sure why she is chewing the furniture, but when I figure it out, I am sure I will appreciate the lesson you are trying to evoke and I do appreciate you using her to teach the lesson to me.

Thank you for my home. I know I complain about it, but some people don't have a place they can call their own. I appreciate my home so much more since we returned from Germany. It is mine. I can paint it. I can decorate it any way I want and no one can tell me otherwise (except my husband and you blessed me with a great one that lets me decorate any way I want). Thank you for our cars. They have enough room for our family. One gets good gas mileage, the other is spacious with benefits. Thank you for those gifts.

Thank you for my bills. I have them because you have blessed us with nice things. They remind me that I must be a careful steward of the gifts you have given us. They remind me of times when we did not put you first and were not careful stewards of your gifts.

Thank you for my trials. From them I learn how to be more like you and not put myself first.

Thank you for my blessings. They remind me you are loving, merciful, and full of grace.

Thank you for everything.

Amen.