Thanksgiving 2011

I'm back! It has been some time since I have posted on here or anywhere for that matter. But God has been good to me and my family. This Thanksgiving our group was a bit smaller but we had more than enough to be thankful for. Each of the members in attendance spoke on what we were grateful for and where we had seen God move in our lives. Personally I can say that I am thankful for my family and the growth that I have seen in different members of my family, I am thankful for the personal relationship I have with God and how that has grown, I'm thankful for the friends He has placed in my life and finally I am thankful for the job that He has given me. With regard to the growth amongst my family, I know that my cousins and sister have definitely shown a stronger desire to please God and as a result they have prospered. Joshua 1:8 says This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. I have seen this come true in the lives of my family and its a true inspiration. We were all doing our prayer conference call and then fell off mid way thru the year due to school, and work, etc. But we have come back to it and there have been a number of praise reports as a result. With regard to my personal walk with God, God has turned over a "new leaf" so to speak. He has revealed another side of me as well as another side of Himself. I always thought that accepting Christ as my Savior and making him the Lord over my life was "enough." But without really knowing what that meant, I was simply living life way short of the full extent that God had for me. But this year, thru a number of books that I have begun to read (The Walk by Shaun Alexander, Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley and Not a Follower by Kyle Idleman just to name a few) I have been able to really sit down in my quite time and think about the way I have lived my life so far and what role have I allowed God to play in my daily walk. I have had a lot of bumps along the way because I have not exerted discipline in the area of my daily devotion time. This is something that I am still asking God to help me with. I need to make Him a priority not just in words but in actions. Had I not been led to develop this area in my Christian walk I would not have read any of these books and God could not have developed me in this area. So i am really thankful for this. With regard to my friendships, God has really placed some great people in my life, both in and outside of work. I have maintained some really great friendships with past coworkers and roommates and then gained some new ones thru this job where I am right now. Not all have been Christian but the ones that are Christian have been really special. Even though the food is now gone, the family has parted their separate ways and those of us available are now preparing for Lois's bday celebration, I want to stay in the spirit of thanksgiving. Church was amazing and it just stirred up a desire to worship God more. Bishop Ulmer had those that could speak other languages come up and pray and it was amazing. You could just hear and to some extent understand what each of the participant said. Granted I only speak English but I understand a little Spanish, the other langagues were frm Africa and somewhere in the South if not Haiti. But you could just feel the appreciation that people had for all that God had done in their life. It brought me to tears. My prayer is just that I won't always wait for the emotions in order to react but that I would thank God whenever I think of all that He has done. I pray you all had a great Thanksgiving Day whether with family or friends or by yourself.