Great Things to Be Thankful For

God has been good to each one of us this year. He has walked with us in hard times, given us songs in the night and strength to meet the challenges ahead. He has showered us with blessings without measure, and given us so many good gifts. He has surrounded us with His love and care and provided for our needs, and even our wants.

Every day, He has left us tokens of His great love and care for us hidden amongst the ordinary things of life, waiting for us to notice, and to understand that every little thing we do and are matters to Him who created us.

Truly, in light of all that He has done for us this year–every single day of this year–our hearts would do well to join with David in exulting, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah,” (Psalms 68:19 KJV) and in joining our voices together in praising Him who has done so many Great Things for us as His children.

To God be the glory for the Great Things that He has done, that He has taught us during this year, the gifts He has given and the ways He’s helped us to grow!

For the past 14 days, a small group of us have been sharing some of these Great Things as a part of  GreaThings 2010.

We’ve shared specific blessings, challenges we’ve faced, lessons learned, answers to prayers, and difficulties we have been blessed to experience, and it has been beautiful to read and be encouraged at all the amazing things that God has done in the lives of others. Life hasn’t always been easy, but through sunshine and rain, we know that “all things” work together for the best in the end…even if we must wait until Heaven to find out the rest of the story.

We should make thankfulness a way of life, and be thankful all year for the blessings that God gives us every day.  But it is important to make time to share together in praising God for the Great Things that He is doing in our lives.

I’ve loved reading what the rest of the girls have shared these past two weeks, and now we’d like to invite you to share some of the Great Things that you’re thankful for this year.

Blessings don’t have to be big things to be great things. Sometimes the smallest of God’s gifts are some of the truly greatest things we can experience, and it is just important to be thankful for those things as it is for the big things.

I’d love for you to join us in focusing on discovering and sharing the little blessings as well as the big ones this Thanksgiving weekend.

Here’s a couple ways you can share with us:

Keep a running list of every thankful thing that you  find starting today and going through out the weekend. It could be the way that fresh bread smells just out of the oven, or the way that frost patterns the windows in the morning or the fact that all your family is together again. Really, it could be anything that makes your heart happy, and makes you thankful.

Comment here as you think of them, or keep a post on your blog and add to it all weekend as you have time and share a link to the direct post in a comment so the rest of us can share in the blessings!

You can also join in on Twitter by using the hash tag #GreaThings in your tweet about what little blessing you are thankful for right then. Be sure to copy it exactly, so that others can see your tweets and enjoy getting a glimpse at what you are thankful for, too!

You don’t have to be an American or celebrating Thanksgiving to join in. Thankfulness is not restricted to a holiday or date, and I would love to hear blessings from all of you, no matter where you are!

And for those of us preparing to celebrate another Thanksgiving Day tomorrow,  I pray that your day is beautiful and blessed with many happy things. But more than anything, I hope you’ll find counting your blessings is so much fun that you’ll keep doing it. Not just during the holidays but for every day of the year.

Also, if you haven’t already done so, take time to go and read the original Thanksgiving Declaration written by our former President, Abraham Lincoln, to get a glimpse of the reasons why they decided to create a National Day of Thanks each year.

So, be thankful, be happy, and enjoy your weekend and the days ahead.

GreaThings was originally created and hosted by Abigail (Paul) Westbrook, and she graciously allowed me to do the hosting this year. You can read more about GreaThings 2010 here, as well as find links back to Abigail and her original GreaThings, which was such a blessing. Thanks, Abigail, for sharing this with us!