With being in one of my favorite seasons, fall and Thanksgiving, I want to focus on one of the values that I consider to be extremely important to me: thankfulness. I feel that as time has gone on many would rather skip over Thanksgiving and go right to Christmas and I believe that deals with how our society is self-focused. I love Thanksgiving and it has always been a big event in my family and not just because my birthday is right around it. Every Thanksgiving my mom’s side of the family all come down to my grandmother’s to spend this holiday together. I love the tradition of gathering in one home to spend time together and laugh, play games, and just enjoy each other’s company. I seriously do not remember a Thanksgiving that we have not done this. Just everyone coming around and being thankful for each other.
Lately, I have been doing the She Reads Truth devotions because they always seem to hit exactly where I am and what God is wanting to say to me. Today I read Psalm 105, “Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he had done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” After reading these verses and the devotion that came with it, it really made me think that sometimes I don’t give God thanks for everything that has happened or is going on. I have hit rock-bottom plenty of times and each time God has always been there to reach down and pick me up. I have always given Him thanks for being there and picking up the pieces but I haven’t really given Him thanks for having to go through the hard times. With everything that has happened in this past year God has opened my eyes to see the big picture and why I gone down these rough roads and how they have been shaping me into the young lady that He has called me to be. I am so grateful for the rough roads because each time they have lead me right back into His incredible arms and taught me some of the greatest lessons in life. God has truly blessed and looked over me and it wasn’t for Him I would not be here. And through this new incredible season of life that God has put before me, there has been some extremely hard times but God has shown me my faults and unfaithfulness. He has shown me that I have a hard time trusting people and most of all trusting Him but time after time Abba as shown me he is always there to catch me and wrap his arms around me and love me. In everything I have gone through in my whole life, the good and the bad, I am thanking Abba for every last bit of it. It is what has created my story, or shall I say my precious gem, that I can relate to others and developed the skill of empathy to help everyone that God brings into my life.
I recently listened to a song called You Are My Vision by Rend Collective and it hit me that this is what Abba is and should be. I find myself continuously playing this song almost everyday and singing it out to Abba because he is my everything and the love of my life.
“You are my vision, oh king of mine heart, Nothing else satisfies, only You, Lord, You are my best thought by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Your presence, my light. You are my wisdom, You are my true word, I ever with You and You with me, Lord, You’re my great Father and I’m Your true Son, You dwell inside me, together we’re one. You are my battle shield, sword for the fight, You are my dignity, You’re my delight, You’re my soul’s shelter and You’re my high tower, Come raise me heavenward, oh, power of my power. I don’t want riches or a man’s empty praise, You’re my inheritance, now and always, You and You only, the first in my heart, High king of heaven, my treasure You are. High king of heaven, when victory’s won, May I reach heaven’s joy, oh, bright heaven’s Son, Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, oh, ruler of all, Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, oh, ruler of all.”
