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Thanksgiving Everyday

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

Well, that’s good to know, Lord, but could you share those plans with me?

We planned to go north to Bismarck, North Dakota, to celebrate Thanksgiving with my son and his family. But three of that household contracted COVID-19. They are all feeling better and I’m so thankful for the miracle of healing, but we were not able to travel as planned.

The LWML Presidents Assembly was going to be held in Lexington, Kentucky, in person. This would have given the 40 LWML district presidents a preview of our convention city and they would have toured the convention center. But COVID-19 cases are up nationwide so I made the
difficult decision to change our meetings to a virtual format. Our plans are not always His plans.

I don’t know the plans my Lord has for me or for my loved ones, but I can rest in the knowledge that His plans are always for the good of His people. Wow — that’s easy to say, isn’t it? It’s harder to do — to trust. Psalm 28:7 says, The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart
trusts and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. But I do trust, by the grace of God. Trust and my faith — both gifts from the Father — both reasons to give thanks.

It’s good to have a day of Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holidays. But I think I’ll keep one of my Thanksgiving decorations out year-round, to remind me each day to give thanks. I have a vase filled with wheat stalks from my farm. My father is with Jesus and hasn’t farmed for a number of years, but they are still a good reminder of the gifts He provides and the harvests yet to come.

I don’t know when we will be free of COVID-19. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I do know that I have a Father who has sent His Son for my salvation and who has a plan for my life. And that’s enough.

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.

Psalm 138: 1a

Today, and always, we are surrounded by HIS grace,
Debbie

bloghome, Lutheran Reflection

Long Thanksgiving Prayers

Give Thanks

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. My son, David, wife Sarah, Jackson, Adelaide, and Charlotte will walk over to our house for dinner. My brother, Robert, wife, Marcia, from Springfield, Missouri, our niece, Heidi from Oklahoma City and nephew Kurt, from Chicago, will also be there.  My son, John, who many of you met in Albuquerque, will fly in from LA with his girlfriend, Rita. And my husband, Bill, will tell the same jokes and make the same remarks he always does at a big family gathering! What fun! We may actually get everyone together for a family Christmas photo! My Thanksgiving prayer is pretty long!

I’m also thankful for the opportunity to visit and hear from our mission grant recipients—current and past—who express their thankfulness to me for the support the LWML has given them in their mission outreach ministries. I wish you could hear each one. We have a page in the Mission section of our website called “Your Mite Offerings Have Made a Difference” where we carry updates, thank you letters, and photos from grants current and past. These recipients have long Thanksgiving prayers for you all who faithfully fill your Mite Boxes in order to help them spread the Word of God around the world.

I know you all have much to be thankful for. As we attend church this Thanksgiving we will thank God for all the material things we have been blessed with as well as the most wonderful thing of all, faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of everlasting life. We thank God for loving us and sending His only son to die on the cross in payment for our sins. We thank God for making us heirs of His heavenly home. It’s almost too much to include in a single prayer of thanksgiving. Just so much! Amazing love, amazing Grace, amazing God!

I’m wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and very long Thanksgiving prayers!

Patti

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 118:1)

Lutheran Reflection

Thankfulness

For all the faithful women who served in days of old. So starts hymn number 855 in our Lutheran Service Book.

As we near the end of our Lutheran Women’s Missionary League’s 75th Anniversary year of 2017 (http://www.lwml.org/75) and as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week and take time out to thank God for his abundant blessings, I was thinking of specific things our organization was thankful for. I thought of the women who worked hard for years prior to our founding convention who struggled for recognition, put up with all kinds of criticism, derision, and still kept on until they were able to organize a national women’s organization within the synod. They are in my prayers of thanksgiving this week and in my heart.

Today we are thankful for all Lutheran women and their dedication to work that shows God’s love and forgiveness to believers and nonbelievers through our LWML. Groups in the local church, the zones and districts and the national organization put in countless hours of work and prayer as we go about our business to enable women to use their God-given abilities to serve others. (http://www.lwml.org/get-involved)

I’ll share the rest of Hymn 855, For All the Faithful Women with you and let you know that I am thanking God for each of you this week that you continue to Serve the Lord With Gladness!

For all the faithful women Who served in days of old,

To You shall thanks be given; To all, their story told.

They served with strength and gladness In tasks Your wisdom gave.

To you their lives bore witness, Proclaimed Your power to save.

 

O God, for saints and servants, Those named and those unknown

In whom through all the ages Your light of glory shone,

We offer glad thanksgiving And fervent prayer we raise

That, faithful in Your service, Our lives may sing Your praise.

 

All praise to God the Father! All praise to Christ the Son!

All praise the Holy Spirit, Who binds the Church in one!

With saints who went before us, With saints who witness still,

We sing glad Alleluias And strive to do Your will.

 

 

 

 

Patti

Lutheran Women in Mission

Thanksgiving

Making friends with so many other women in the world is one of the great things about being active in LWML—Lutheran Women in Mission. I am so thankful for LWML and the friends I have made through it.
I would never expect that feeling overwhelmed I would tearfully call a woman in Oregon and pour out my anxieties. Nor would I have believed that I had a special friend in Phoenix who sends me gifts who I’ve only met once. I wouldn’t have thought I’d learn first-hand about dog-showing and breeding. Or connect with a friend of my dear Aunt Irene in California. The list could fill this page.

As we approach Thanksgiving my thoughts turn to people I am thankful to have in my life now and in the past. Not things—people. I’m sure as Christian women that is what most of us recall at Thanksgiving. That is why we go to the trouble of getting the family and friends together around the meal and the football games. It’s not always about the food, although that’s one of my favorite parts, but about the time set aside to catch up with family, meet that new baby in the family, and renew relationships.

Last week in the store the Thanksgiving items were already 50% off as Christmas items bulged from boxes waiting to be shelved. I know you all feel like I do that the Thanksgiving holiday, largely passed over, should be promoted as much as we promote Christmas. Our church has a Faith Friends group that meets Wednesday nights. It includes the kids from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Our LWML, working with our DCE intern during November, are doing three Wednesdays on thankfulness. The first Wednesday we did kits and tied quilts for Lutheran World Relief and talked about what we were thankful for. You might be interested that most of the kids mentioned people over things. The second week we skyped with a couple who are missionaries in Slovakia and the kids got to ask many questions. Then we did bookmarks and notes for the teachers and students to send over. Our third evening will be looking at thank you videos about the Lutheran World Relief kits and quilts from two groups of recipients. Then we are going to put together trail mixes and write a thank you for someone who normally doesn’t get much “thanks” for doing their job. It will be interesting to see where these will go.

I hope you have an opportunity to have a “people” Thanksgiving. I know you all will be thanking God for friends made in LWML because I’ve seen you all in action!
I’ll end this as my dad always ended our meals.

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever (Psalm 106:1 KJV).

Patti

Happy Thanksgiving