Living with Thanksgiving

Living with Thanksgiving is possible! Even during the hard times.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1942, Dorothy was a beautiful, twenty-four-year-old bride. She and her husband raised seven children during the years that followed. They didn’t have much money, but they had a home filled with faith in God. On Sunday they took their children to church. Every school year they made room in their budget to send those children to Christian school. Each day her children could find her on her knees at her bedside, bringing their needs to God in prayer.

Thanksgiving: The Early Years

Living with thanksgiving during the early years, Dorothy cleaned, cooked, canned, and sewed at home to stretch each dollar and provide her family with the best her talents could offer. As the older children entered high school, she added a part-time job as a waitress in a family restaurant. None of her children lacked for love or care. Neither did her church. Both she and her husband supported their church with their tithes and their talents.

Thanksgiving: A Quick Fifty Years Later

Fifty years passed quickly. Surrounded by family and friends, Dorothy and her bridegroom of long ago celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary by renewing their vows before God in church. Eighteen months later–again surrounded by family and many friends–she buried her husband.

In a world consumed by stock-piling large retirement funds, how did an eighty-one-year-old widow on social security and a small pension manage? Who cared for her?

God cared for her! He not only provided for her needs but delighted her heart through her children, unexpected gifts, prospering her little sewing business (her favorite thing to do), and answering the prayers of her grateful heart. Dorothy lived quite well by her faith in the Lord God whom she served daily with thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving: Blessed Truth

Through the years Dorthy came to know the blessed truth of . . .

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, WITH THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”–Philippians 4:6-7 (The Holy Bible, New International Version).

Beloved Lord God, may we all know the joy and security of living with thanksgiving–of blessed confidence in your faithful provision as we love and serve you with grateful hearts. Amen.

What one thing are you most thankful for as we celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Please share!