Attitudes of Gratitude - # 3 - November 3, 2012 - Priorities

 Nothing I do in my life is more important than "giving thanks" to God for all the blessings that "hallow my days" - for all I have as well as for some things I don't have; for those I love and for those who love me; for my beautiful new home and for my church;  for the opportunity to stand with Terry and serve ten appointments in the United Methodist ministry in North Georgia; for my marriage of thirty-seven years, for our daughter and her new husband and step-daughters; for my friends;  for my love of nature and eyes to see it. . . for just everything. As I've said previously, I'm a huge believer in "Thanksliving" as a means of giving thanks!  

Every year for the last few years, I have started the month of November with a VOW to myself to express one thing each day for which I am particularly thankful at THAT moment in time, and every year it  has been my pathetic custom to over-commit myself to "projects", to give in to the nudge of "volunteer-itis", to fail to recognize my limitations, old and new, and just generally to fail to do that which I ought to do and to do that which I ought NOT to do. Most especially, I am irked with myself for failing to honor my OWN pronouncement that said, "THIS year, I WILL express the gratitude I feel for family, friends, home, nature, etc."

As I approach this "labor of love" this year, I am acutely aware of the need to at least "begin", even if circumstances beyond my control make it difficult - even impossible - to continue with consistency every day.  As major health problems loom before me, and I face some life-threatening issues,  I know only too well, that we do not pass this way in our lives but once, and that the moments must be lived or lost to us.  So, I may not succeed in keeping that commitment to myself  THIS year either , but part of understanding my shortcomings and doing "something" about things I "can" change even in the midst of so many things I can't change, I'm posting the words to one of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns, written in the late 1800s by August Storm . . . "Thanks to God for My Redeemer ".

The words say - better than I can -  what I believe and feel and they express what  *I* hope I will live in the coming days.  The hymn affirms just what I feel when I think of "thankful" - - - including the good, the bad, the ugly and the in-between times of my life.

1. Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a mem’ry,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

2. Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

3. Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

I wish for any of YOU who might come across this and read it a month of giving thanks that leads you into a lifetime of the same.  I wish for YOU a wonderful sense of contentment in whatever state your find yourself in . . . in short - a time of "thanksliving".