Give Thanks...

November has arrived and I have put away the Halloween stuff....the decorations were put away in a box, the candy was put away in my mouth. The doorbell only rang 4 times on Halloween night, so the extra large bowl of candy barely had a dent put in it.

Our neighborhood has certainly matured. The first Halloween we lived here, we ran out of candy in the middle of a large group that had arrived. We had been having only 2 or 3 trick or treaters at a time. With just a little candy left, we figured we could handle one more group, then turn out the light. But the next group had about 10 kids! Try handing out candy to the front row and reaching down to an empty bowl with a bunch of masked kids looking at you. Every year since then we have over bought. Now, we are stuck (yea!) with lots of candy.

Now it is the month of giving thanks. This is my favorite month because it is my birth month. But I also love the weather and the time change and pumpkin pie and turkey and dressing. And I like being reminded to stop and think of what I am most thankful for....although I think about this daily now, it is different to look back at the year and reflect about the blessings that stand out.


I found this quote in the paper a while back......

"If the only prayer you say is thank you....that would suffice."

That made me think about how I changed the way I prayed. When I say pray, I really mean talk to God. I am not one to kneel down at my bed or go to a quiet place to pray. I just talk to him in my head. There is a moment of silence each morning at school....and that is when I would say I officially pray. But mostly I just visit with Him off and on all day long.

I used to begin every prayer with "please, please, please......fill in the blank." Begging. Begging. Bartering. But slowly I learned to just give thanks. So now, even on the hardest day, I say thank you to my heavenly Father. Sometimes I thank him for something in particular and some days I just say thanks. He knows what I have....so I don't really have to call it out.

The other quote I love is "Do not prayer for an easy life, pray for strength for the life you have been given."I love that. Our life is what it is. But he will give us the strength to deal with it. Wow. I have lots of days where I say "Give me the strength!"

And lastly, my favorite little prayer...

"Dear Lord, Put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth." heehee



For my daughters out there.....start thinking about what you are thankful for because you know I am going to make you say it out loud on Thanksgiving Day!