Speaking Thanksgiving

All through Psalm 145 you will see how we are encouraged to speak our praise and thanksgiving out loud to those around us. Private thanksgiving between us and the Lord is vital, but there is something that breathes life into us and others when we speak it verbally for ears to hear. And what a privilige to be able to do this with the very children that God has blessed us with.

 "One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts."

As I have sought to be a woman of gratitude I can see how my words bring life or death into our home. I have an 11 year old daughter. Why have such things taken so long for me to grasp? She needed a mama of gratitude when she was a baby and a toddler and a little girl.....But, I will not be defeated, because she is still under my care and in my home, so I begin to speak life and I see life breathed into her very being. It is not too late. She begins to speak life into her little sister and her little brother. It is slow going. We are learning to undo a way of thinking. To undo a way of speaking.

"Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness."

I am a blessed woman and overwhelmed at the goodness of God...

for a daddy who buys several bales of hay to take his grandchildren and grown children out for a hayride on Thanksgiving Day.

for a mother who spends endless hours stuffing a turkey and baking it to please the tastebuds of all her family.

for time spent with my younger brother and his sweet family.

for a husband who tells me that he will take a temporary leave at the head of the table to go and sit by our 2 yr. old who needs some training in table manners.

for a husband who wants us all to sit around the computer to watch a street preacher share the gospel with an unbelieving culture.

for daughters who sing while they clean the kitchen.

for daughters who race to give Maleah her first kiss after awaking from her sweet sleep.

for the eight steps our little one took in her beginning of independence.

for a little boy consumed with collecting cocoons that have "bagworms" inside of them.

for another little boy accepting a challenge of a sword fight with a stick from his older brother.

for our six year old, minutes after pulling her second tooth out, calling for her daddy to tell her again how she can be saved.

for the moments around our home that is shaping and molding us into the image of Christ, so that He can use us to reach the ends of the earth with His gospel.

"All Your works shall praise you O Lord, and Your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of kingdom and talk of your power. To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom."

Nichole