Thanks

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

    First  Thessalonians 5:16-18 says,  “Rejoice evermore.  Pray without ceasing.  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

     I can’t say that my family, Mom and Dad Freeland, ever said grace before a meal.  Once Dad sat down, we began eating.  A Thanksgiving dinner could be gone in 15 minutes after my Mom had worked for the previous 8 hours of preparation.  A loaf of bread was put in the oven to make toast for the dressing and then the giblets began cooking to make the broth for that same dressing.  It was indeed a good meal, but we never thanked God before we ate.  Then, after one year at Indiana University, I joined the U. S. Navy where I learned the term, “mystery meat.”  That was what the main course would be referred to when no one knew exactly what it was.

The Apostle Paul often closed his epistles with everything he wanted to say, but didn’t get around to it.  Well, it seems that way, but due to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He set forth a list of imperative commands at the end.  They were short and to the point.   It is not hard to translate them.  He meant what he said.  Notice the little command, “in everything give thanks.”    When you think about it, this is really hard to do.  Oh, it is easy to thank God when things go your way and you feel blessed, but it doesn’t always happen the way we expect it to happen or it doesn’t turn out the way we wanted it to turn out.  As a result, we often neglect to say thanks for those things.  It has been hard in the beginning to thank God for the debreeding of my foot ulcers every two weeks.  They seem fine to me and then the doctor takes out a little blue stick with a curved knife on the end of it and begins to scrape away all dead material.  When she gets done, it looks worse than when I came in.  The dead stuff, however, needs to be removed so good stuff can replace it.  I was recently told that I have had over fifty visits to the VA podiatry department.  I can thank God today for their tenacity in dealing with these ulcers.   Now, I am indeed thankful as I still have my leg because of their work on it.  There are many things in our lives that take place where we need to be thankful.  We may not know the reason today, but we may know it tomorrow.  Praise FGod today for all of the things He puts in our lives and give thanks in each of them.