GOBBLE GOBBLE

GOBBLE GOBBLE

This time next week we will be partaking of that wonderful turkey dinner with all the fixings’.  I love the traditional Thanksgiving celebration with all the family gathering together; the food, smells, crisp air and the atmosphere of thankful hearts celebrating another year of blessings.  The family sharing with each other, what has been happening in their lives, fulfilling that much needed one on one interaction with the ones you love. The Thanksgiving Day parades serenade us as we put the final touches on the meal that took two days to prepare and 15 minutes devour.  Just before we partake of the succulent meal we bow in prayer and each person remains in respectful silence as one by one a prayer of thanksgiving is said. After we have eaten to our fill, it is time for football. The excitement of the Lions winning has created just enough hunger to shovel the down the pumpkin pie smothered in whip cream.  We love it!

Now I just painted you a Rockwell picture and if truth be told you will say; I don’t know whose house you have been going to each year!  Yes this is true.  All of us long for that perfect family gathering with totally peace, joy and love.  Chances are all of us have experienced a less than desirable Thanksgiving setting.  But why is that?

A few days ago I was watching TV and a Thanksgiving commercial came on.  The commercial shows the whole family gathered, and table is set to perfection with all the food in place.  The family then goes outside and locks themselves out of the house.  Now they are looking through the window trying to figure out how to get back into the house.  To their horror their dog is advancing on their Thanksgiving feast.  We have those fire exit doorknobs on our house.  Dan and I both have locked ourselves out.  The problem with those doors is; you can open them from the inside regardless of whether or not the door is locked.  Exit your home, try to re-enter and next thing you know, you’re locked out!

I can certainly identify with Thanksgiving blunders.  One year as always I spent two days preparing our feast.  I had baked 4 pumpkin pies the day before as usual.  Well Thanksgiving Day we ate our meal.  I served the desert.  The pumpkin pie looked and smelled absolutely delicious.  Just as I was chowing down on my first bite I discovered I had forgotten to add sugar to the pumpkin mix.  Fortunately this transpired when we lived in Hudsonville and I was only 5 minutes from Family Fare.  I quickly drove to the store to pay through the nose for whatever desert was leftover.  The good news was the overpriced cheese cake was very good but when you are longing for pumpkin pie……………..

Isn’t that just like life, you think every detail has been taken care of then, surprise, surprise, surprise (as Gomer Pyle / Jim Nabors) would say.

How can it be that something that looks so good on the outside, absolutely picture perfect, can be so nasty in the inside or fall apart in an instant? And without notice the dog eats your dinner.  That is okay because you forgot to put the sugar in the pie.

The answer to that question is because we live in a world where sin affects everything.  All of us have faced disappointments, setbacks, trials, failures and etc. How we react to those issues of life may determine how that issue affects our future.  Many of us “let the little foxes still our grapes”.  Sometimes we can even get through the big issues or disasters only to succumb to a series of “little issues”. 

This Thanksgiving I pray we truly all will reflect on the blessings the Lord has given us this past year.  I pray we will be flexible and at peace as we interact with family, friends and all the little quirks that come with them.  Chances are those “quirks” come out of hurts, stresses and disappoints.  There will be some blunders, go ahead and laugh at yourself, just shake it off.

And I will leave you with the most important ingredients for the best Thanksgiving recipe:

Leviticus 22:29(NKJV)
And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, offer it of your own free will. 

Psalms 26:7(NKJV)
    That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,     And tell of all Your wondrous works.

Psalms 50:14(NKJV)
    Offer to God thanksgiving,     And pay your vows to the Most High.

Psalms 69:30(NKJV)
    I will praise the name of God with a song,     And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Psalms 95:2(NKJV)
    Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;     Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

Psalms 100:4(NKJV)
    Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,      And into His courts with praise.     Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Psalms 107:22(NKJV)
    Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,     And declare His works with rejoicing.

2 Corinthians 4:15(NKJV)
For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:15(NKJV)
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 

Colossians 4:2(NKJV)
Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; 

Revelation 7:12(NKJV)
saying:      “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,     Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,     Be to our God forever and ever.     Amen.”

Blessings to you and your family this Thanksgiving!!