Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

December 10, 2024, the busiest day of the year. Left for work at 7:30, stayed a little late to finish coloring a Christmas Tree for an all-school project, so went straight to the car fix place, had an appointment at 4:00 to get an oil change, replace a headlight and ended up replacing a battery and a license plate bulb. Grabbed a bite at a fast-food taco restaurant I had never been to before, then straight to the health club for an hour bike ride, arriving home at 8:00. So no time for an hour write tonight, going to try to get some sleep. Sitting in the car place watching it get dark at 5:00 I thought a lot about how fast life is going and how crazy things are getting, and yet as long as we are here we have work to do, we have light to shine and truth to speak and love to give and prayers to pray. I am thankful for food and clothing, shelter and work and a bed to sleep in. As time passes and people die (people all like to say "pass" nowadays). People leave your life, but God's faithfulness continues. We live by faith. I found a kind of top yesterday at Goodwill that said, "Give thanks with a grateful heart." That was the title of a song several years back, and has remained fairly popular in my lifetime, and after a busy day like today, I just want to say thank you to God for life and truth and his provision, giving us his friendship and his guidance, how it grows steadily, more and more, as we keep moving toward him, however much we may struggle. He just keeps right on working in our heart to make us more like him, and I wish everyone would have a relationship with the Lord by trusting in Christ. It hurts to be abandoned by friends and family members, to watch the world going away from God more and more, and yet we know he just keeps on being there for everyone, even waits for those who keep rejecting him, and as long as we are here we have a purpose, we have a reason to live, and so many in our world do not, or, at least, they think they do not. I try to allow the Lord to remove my complaining and my lack of faith and my impatience, but I have to allow him to work and I have to be willing to change, and I am amazed at how gentle he is with those of us who still want to follow closely even though we keep catching ourselves missing the mark. More and more he changes us, and more and more he becomes everyhing to us and like the old song says, "the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." So be blessed and I will try to keep this going even if it is short like this. Bye for now. Carolyn