Thanksgiving Day Quotes:

"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude."  -E.P. Powell

"So once in every year we throng Upon a day apart, To praise the Lord with feast and song In thankfulness of heart." -Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice." -Meister Eckhart

"Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action." -W.J. Cameron

"He who thanks but with the lips Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving Comes from the heart." -J.A. Shedd

"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow." -Edward Sandford Martin

"For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" -Henry Ward Beecher

“Praise God even when you don’t understand what He is doing.” [Henry Jacobsen]

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good..." [Psalm 100:4, 5a]

"Without Thy sunshine and Thy rain We could not have the golden grain; Without Thy love we'd not be fed; We thank Thee for our daily bread." [Anonymous]

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." [Gerald Good]

Do not get tired of doing what is good.  Don't get discouraged and give up, For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.  - Galatians 6:9

 

War Stories

War Stories of Grace and Thanks

I remember standing in the heat of a third world country; the smell of garbage, feces and ocean water permeated the air.  I looked around and saw women and children living in tin shacks made no better than something my kids make in our backyard.  Inside these tin shacks; they cooked, slept and raised their children.  During the day, the women and children would wait for the garbage trucks to come and it would be like a mob, fighting to dig through the garbage to find scraps of food or items to sell.  If the kids were lucky, they may find a broken toy or a ball to play with.  The biggest prize was paying a fee to a local warlord for the privilege of rummaging through the trash left by Americans, Trash kids as we waste good food and throw away items these people would normally pay a premium for. Our trash was like a Christmas feast to these people.  For all the blessings, abundance and privilege I have each day, I give thanks to God.

Another time, I sat on the floor on pillows.  The temperature was upwards of 120 and the flies would bother you relentlessly.  I sipped my scalding hot chai and talked with a Muslim friend of mine.  We had been talking about being fathers and raising our children when he asked me a profound question. "Do Christians in America hate Muslims?"  I looked my friend in the eyes and told him that I cannot speak for all Christians but I believe that we are all people of the book, all God's children.  Muslim Family I told him that Jesus' message was of peace and loving one another, not fighting or judging.  My job as a Christian believer was not to preach or judge but to be a living example of the teachings of Jesus' and to build bridges to all people, not just those of certain faiths or ethnicity's.  With tears in his eyes, the man told me that he and I would be lifelong brothers and though the practice of our faith was different, God would bless us and he was forever in debited to me.  For building bridges and seeing that even though we stand on different sides of faith, we all want the same basic needs in life and for our families, I give thanks to God.

I sat frustrated trying to find a clever way to explain to my children what grace meant.  The best I could come up with was doing something, for someone who doesn't necessary deserve it and overlooking my own personal needs to look out for the needs of others.  Afterwards, I realized that I will not always have all the answers.  I cannot prepare my children for everything they will face in life.  Self Development only goes so far and eventually we have to go to God.  My job as a father is to model authentic Christianity in my actions more than my words and at times when I don't have the strength or the answers, I have to rely on God and the Holy Spirit to get me through.  If I could just teach this one principle to my children, I would be a success as a father.  For showing me your undeserving Grace, for giving me a beautiful family and for helping me through my darkest of days, I give you thanks.

- Happy Thanksgiving -

  Lance        

 

 

 

 

Faith begins home

Every once in a while I find a diamond in the rough in public speakers.  That is, I recently heard a great speaker talking about a tough subject - Parenting.  Mark Holmen is the author of Faith @ Home series and is a great speaker from the Heart.  So many times we hear about kids that walk away from their faith and reject their parents religion.  They reject their parents faith because when really pressed about why they reject it they say because my parents faith was not for real.  That may sound a little harsh, but let me put it a different way, the Faith that is rejected may not be authentic seven days a week.   Meaning parents who put their Sunday Church clothes only to take them off Monday through Saturday wearing different duds. 

This really is a difficult subject to follow because most of us like a fast-food approach to parenting and to our Faith and would like teachers, churches, schools and everyone other than Mom & Dad to do the nitty gritty details of everyday life.  In other words, we need to be the parents and be wholly devoted to rearing our chidlren from home.  Faith@home

Mark was kind enough to write some additional books to dads and moms and I will tell you that who does not hold punches.  He puts it all out there and gently yet sternly gives us a roadmap of directon to take.  Our faith needs to be real.  As we go to Deuteronomy 6, his passage and basis for the book.  Actually, most bibical parenting material should take you to this Scripture. 

These books give parents encouragement, comfort and urges us to take the right steps to equip us to rear children and make faith real to them and to us.  I really enjoyed that Mark shares the significance and importance of how mom and dads (and their faith) can and will create a legacy in our children. 

If you have time, read it!  If you don't have time, then find time to read it.  If you don't like reading books, then Google Mark Holmen and find out what church near you he is speaking.  In my humble opinion, this is a must read and legacy worthy!

Leaving a legacy of real faith to our children!  What can be better than that? 

Dante

My little princess

Parenting With An Atmosphere of Grace Series:

My Little Prince and Princesses

As you may have heard me talking about my three children (Trey-6 Audrey-5 & Isabella-3), one thing I have not talked about much is how my wife and I are rearing them as they grow.  There is a distinct difference between the oldest (first child), second child and baby of the family.  You may have read books on how each possess character traits similar to the same ranking of age in other families.  

Audrey is my middle child and she, by no means, lacks personality.  She is by all definition, “little miss personality”.  Audrey is a lot like her mom in that she does not hesitate to tell you what she is thinking.  Even when she knows you are disciplining her – she has to be heard and it usually begins with, “But,…” in which I reply, “The only ‘butts’ around here are the one that is going to be spanked,” and that usually gets her attention (after she finishes her thought, of course).  

 Audreyminnie Audrey is unique.  She doesn’t need a spanking like some other children may.  She actually just needs the look and that usually brings the crocodile tears immediately following.  She has such a gentle and caring heart that people are affected by her personality and touch.  She is an old soul and she really cares about people.  In Lance’s post, The Heart Before the Head, he talked about shepherding the heart first and eventually the head would follow.   

Needless to say, we just finished the first half of our vacation, which was a 3 day Disney Cruise, we had some issues with our two youngest (of course, the girls, because boys know how far to push you). Anyway, Audrey was having some issues of obedience and my initial reaction was to just get angry and threaten her with either taking things away or the dreaded fanny spanking if the behavior continued.  Disney_wonder_cruises

As I was pondering this, Legacy came into mind as Lance, Gary and I have been talking about direction and vision and I was cut to the core by my reaction to her disobedience.  I was trying to rear the head instead of cultivating her heart.  So as I failed miserably in trying to rear my child the right way (or at least my parental way) I realized that even in our greatest mistakes we can claim victory and that is what I did.  The victory was not in being right or wrong or winning the battle.  The victory was won by shepherding her heart.

I squatted down to her level and calmed her down with a hug and told her that her daddy loved her and was not going to spank her, but I wanted to talk to her.  I asked her if she thought the way she was behaving was acceptable in any terms and she responded, “nooooooo” with a long pause and meekness to it.  In which, I then apologized to her and told her that I was sorry in the way that I reacted to her disobedience.  I asked her if she could work on hearing and listening and doing what her mommy told her to do in t the first place, in which she said, “yes”.  

The victory that I feel was won is that I gained her heart instead of just her head hearing and doing the behavior I wanted.  The older I get, and the more I look at young ladies, I realize it is extremely important for dad’s to love their daughters and to give them as much time as they need from their dads growing up.  I hope not only to teach her the heart of the matter, but to show her love and respect, chivalry, loyalty and honesty and down right good ways that a man should always treat a woman.  

Dante

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