Every year I look forward to Thanksgiving and our family being here and all of our traditions. I love being together with family and sometimes a friend or two who has become family. I love all the preparations in anticipation of all of us being together: cleaning and organizing, decorating with all things fall, tablecloths and a centerpiece on the dining room table, buying the groceries, baking and making desserts, cooking the foods! I get to prepare the special recipe for injecting the turkeys for deep frying! But my husband and daughter usually do the messy work of injecting them on Wednesday night and then they’re put on ice until the next morning when my husband is ready to deep fry them. I can’t wait to get a taste of it all! Yummy!

But the one tradition I enjoy most is when each person around the table tells us what they’re thankful  for in the past year and why. It’s precious to hear the younger grands talk and hear what they are thankful for and blessed with each time! There may be a few shy moments and even a giggle or two! The older grands are getting much more mature now with the twins being 18 and graduated, working jobs, and dating, and their sister is 14 so I’m sure some good conversations will erupt. God’s been good to all of us this year so there will probably be some tears of joy of the blessings that the Lord has given us. Then we pray for another year ahead of health, service to God and others, and needs being met for all.

Does your family have traditions you hold dear and look forward to each year? Do you stop and thank the Lord for family and the blessings you’ve received? Here a few that come to my mind.

1.       We can be thankful first for God’s provision of our Saviour that we may accept Him and forever be free from our sin debt! Jesus paid our debt when He died on the cross and shed His blood for us! Romans 5:8 and Rom 10:9-10.

2.       We can be thankful for His provision of our physical needs as well. Our home here, clothing, food, a job to meet financial needs, and even many of our wants, too! Heb 10:25

3.       We can be thankful for our church that God uses to speak to us and draw us nearer to Him and one another through the preaching of God’s word, the spirit filled music we hear and sing, and  fellowship with our church family! Heb 10:25

4.       We can be thankful for the privilege we have to serve the Lord in our church and to love and give our time, our talent, and our offerings to further the work of the Lord within our church ministries and communities and beyond! Col 3:14, Eph 6:7-8, John 13:34

Ain’t God good to give us so many blessings, undeserving that’s what we are! We ought to thank Him, love and praise Him, evermore today, and a whole lot more tomorrow! If you know that song, I’m sure you just sang it! I pray you have a blessed time with family and friends, wherever you spend your day! Have a happy thanksgiving!

Susie Ballard

Pastor’s Wife, 31 years and counting

Grace Baptist Church, Marion, Iowa