Worship Ministry - November 2024
Thanksgiving
This year’s Thanksgiving will be my thirty-first Thanksgiving celebration, and boy has it changed over the years. What food is on my plate has changed; I used to hate sweet
potatoes but now sweet potato crunch is the first thing I reach for! What I am most thankful for has changed a little bit; being grateful for my family has become so much more important than being thankful to be out of school. Who’s around the table has changed! When I was a kid the table was on the smaller side, with my mom, dad, and two siblings joined by my mom's parents some years. Now, it's hard to keep track of all twenty-eight-plus people who are sitting all over the house in anything that resembles a chair! One thing that hasn’t changed? God’s faithfulness! No matter the burdens or trials I have faced, or the family members that have passed on and gone to heaven; God’s faithfulness has always remained.
“22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” - Lamentations 3:22-23
What a great truth to cling to as we head into the holiday season! No matter how your year has been, whether the best year or the worst, God has loved you without end and has shown you mercies anew every day! This should fill our hearts with a great sense of thanksgiving and a desire to live a life of faithfulness for God in return.
I have been blessed to have not only incredible parents who showed me what it meant to live a life of faithfulness toward God, but grandparents who lived it out too. Growing up I was close with my mom’s parents, both geographically and in relationship. For a handful of years, we lived just a few miles away, so we spent lots of time running around their backyard. They would take us fishing during the hot Oklahoma summers and let us pick apples and pears off their fruit trees. My grandma would make sure that we didn’t leave the table hungry and spend time teaching us how to fry the fish that we caught. A few years ago, both of them went on to be with the Lord, but they left behind a legacy of faithfulness. I miss them and our time together, but thankful that they had a testimony of God’s saving grace.
My grandparents had been members of the same church for forty-plus years, and when I would visit during my college summers my grandma especially loved taking me to her Sunday school class to show me off to all her friends. Their church has recently undergone some renovations and construction as they continue on their mission to reach
Broken Arrow and beyond. As I have watched, from five hundred and seventy-two miles away, I have been blessed by knowing that my grandparents contributed to that work with forty years of faithful service. They spent time worshiping the Lord, growing in their faith, and being faithful to the Lord while being a part of His church. They were faithful in life but they were also faithful in their death. As part of their estate planning, they gave ten percent of all that was liquidated to their church. Even in their death, they wanted to support the church's work in reaching the world for the Lord! Even in their death, they wanted to be faithful to the Lord and give back to Him what He blessed them with.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my grandparents who invested in my life. Their investment continues to bear fruit as I raise my kids, whom they didn’t get the chance to meet, because of the legacy of faithfulness they displayed! May we strive to live faithful lives for Christ! Not perfectly, but relying on God to help us grow in our faith and to shine His light for all the world to see.
Who are you thankful for? What blessings has God given to you this year? “1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1
Love you and mean it!