I Am Thankful, Grateful and Blessed

This excerpt from article by Amanda Taub of the New York Times (partially posted below) captured my attention and my heart today. I believe that it is fitting that I share this with you as a reminder that each day we have so much to be grateful and to give thanksgiving to God. For His blessings and mercies are new each morning. Let us strive to have an attitude of gratefulness and thanksgiving every day. Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

“I am thankful that my family and I do not have to huddle in a hospital or in a school in the vain hope of being safe from bombs, or to rely on an “iron dome” to protect us from rockets.

I am thankful that I have never had to beg my children to be quiet for hours while we hid from people trying to murder us and our neighbors in our own homes. I am thankful that I have not spent every second of the last 46 days and nights frantic over the fate of loved ones taken hostage. I am thankful that my children have never felt the pain of burying a beloved sibling. Thankful that I have never had to scrawl their names on their limbs in permanent marker in case I die and they are found by strangers.

I am thankful that if my children ask me for water, I can just turn on a tap; that if they ask me for food, I can give it to them without having to risk my life to hunt for it in a war zone. Thankful that if we needed a hospital, it would have electricity and sterile equipment and supplies like anesthesia available.

Thankful that my children are alive. Thankful that my husband is alive. Thankful that I am alive. Thankful that all of you reading this are alive. But also sad and angry that we live in a world where these things are blessings to be counted, and where so many cannot do so.”

Blessings, Rev. Glenn

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  ~ Lamentations 3:22-23

… in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  ~ Phillipians 4:6-7