Thanksgiving table

Today I have shared the following devotion over at

Laced With Grace. For daily devotions, you can visit http://lacedwithgrace.com/ .

If we could look in the window of our neighbor, I wonder what kind of table we would see this Thanksgiving Day?

•  The widow who just recently lost her soul mate of 49 years, sitting at her table alone, staring at the empty seat across from her.
•  The young mother and her two children, join hands and not only pray for their meal but for the safe return of their husband and father from war over at Iraq.
•  The elderly man, bows and prays and thanks God for the last piece of bread that he is about to eat.

 So many of us will gather around our table this day, joined with our family and friends and enjoy in a feast that seems never ending. While at the same time, people all over will have nothing to eat or have no-one to share their dinner with, much like the examples I gave above. No matter what your table may look like this Thanksgiving day, gratitude is indeed in our attitude.

  Paul is a man in the Bible that truly had an attitude of gratitude! While in prison, Paul and Silas were praying and singing and it is during this time that Paul expressed is gratitude in a language. A language of worship that is. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he encouraged them to share all of their worries and concerns to God. Not only did Paul instruct them to give it all to God but he also implored them to do it with thankfulness.

 Paul knew, all too well, that this often-missing ingredient (thankfulness) would change the perspective of so many. Consider how thankfulness lightens your perspective. For Paul, being thankful kept his focus on what was good, true, just, pure and lovely, instead of on the chains of his circumstances. As a result, Paul felt the peace of God.

Maybe you are experiencing some anxiety this Thanksgiving day, Paul is not suggesting that we love the cause of our anxiety, but what he is saying is that we can find God’s peace when we take time to stop and worship Him! Some of the awfulness of this world will not entirely go away, but suddenly it will seem smaller or even more manageable if we seek His peace.

  PSALM 95:2 “Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!”

 Gratitude is a beautiful way to bring your worries down to size…no matter what your table looks like this day, speak in “gratitude language” to God and give Him Praise!

  Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Find more grateful hearts over at THANKFUL THURSDAY...Iris is our host this month.