It is amazing to me that 3 teenage grandsons want to get up long before sunrise and shop with grandpa for their own Christmas gifts. We start with homemade hot chocolate which I put into their thermos mugs and off we go. After we hit a couple main stores we hit the restaurant for breakfast. We wrap up with a couple more stores and then back home by 10:00 am. I’m not sure what they do the rest of the day but I do take a recliner nap in the afternoon! It is a fun moment which they and I both enjoy.

As Christmas begins to enter into the picture this year I find myself regrouping. After Kathy’s stroke last year on Black Friday the world came to a stop for a time. Since then it has taken a different route which I’m learning. The things we did are no longer “we”. I do the Christmas shopping with the boys and Kathy is content to give everyone money. I’m good with that and everyone else is too. I reflect on the Christmas seasons of our past and smile. Today I smile that we can still enjoy this season differently, but we can enjoy it together. God is always good and I thank Him for it!

This day started very early taking 3 teenage grandsons Black Friday shopping. It’s done now and they are home. I’m now home too and ready or a nap. I hope to have a more inspiring message tomorrow other than God is so Good!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! It is incredible to me how much thanks is needed in this world today. But, for today, I want to focus only on THANKS. It all started not so long ago with Jesus and me. This blessed Jesus we all get to serve out of a joyous heart, is so worthy of our thanks.

Worship has taken on a much fuller role for me of late. Each morning I let my spirit unite with God’s Holy Spirit within me. Somehow in doing so as I journal and let the praise of worship sing through my spirit, I awaken something deep within me that is pure gratitude. How did someone who felt so unworthy of Christ’s love become so filled with it?! It is truly a miracle of God’s Loving Grace He bestows on and in each of us (me included).

Today, more than any other day, I give Thanks to my blessed Lord and Savior–JESUS CHRIST!

The message of yesterday is hugely on my mind and heart today. I had an intake come to me through email yesterday for counseling. The intake was from someone who had come over a year ago. At that time this person’s marriage was on the rocks. There was an affair going on presently and there had been multiple affairs earlier in the marriage. Both parties in the marriage had recommitted their lives to God and restored their commitment to one another. Now, 1.5 years later the one who had been in the affair is trying to forgive themselves and unable to do so.

Forgiveness is such a huge item and in our flesh alone we are never worthy of it. I awoke early this morning not only with this person on my mind, but all of the ones coming who are unable to find their own self-forgiveness. Good grief, if you aren’t worthy of it, how can one just give it to oneself? I lived in this world for decades! I just pushed it aside so I could do what I could do as well as possible hoping that in heaven I’d find all of this “peace” scripture talks about.

This morning during my journaling I was reminded of Gloria Gaither’s song, “It Is Finished”. It’s lyrics tell so well this battle of self-forgiveness. Christ’s dying on the cross and His resurrection WON this battle for each of us. The 4th verse of this song says: “Yet in my heart, the battle still rages, not all prisoners of war had come home. These were battlefields of my own making, I didn’t know that the war had been won.” Satan didn’t want me to accept Christ’s Work on the Cross for me and he certainly does not want anyone else to know/believe this either.

Romans 3:20-26 tells us so well how Christ’s righteousness has been given to us through our FAITH. This will be the message I’ll share for our battle is WON and by genuine FAITH we can forgive self and do what I’ve written before–find self-love, self-appreciation and self-confidence for we are “fearfully and wonderfully made and we can know this full well!” (Psalms 139:14)

What a blessed start to this day. I SLEPT. Of course I had my moments of awakening during the night as I always do, but I went back to sleep and didn’t get up until 6:20 am. Yesterday I had this overwhelming sense to give thanks and today has been exactly the same. So, the day started with thanks for letting this body sleep so long!

Yesterday, after church, I went to see my prayer warrior Lois. I never want to burden her staying too long, but when I left I looked at my watch and I’d been there 2 hours and 5 minutes. It seemed we had SO MUCH to talk about. She deeply prays for those I counsel and have troubled spirits. These individuals all know I have a prayer warrior who prays for them and they have given their permission for me to give Lois their names.

In giving thanks as is so deeply on my heart and mind, I have this strong assurance in the strength of God’s power. There is nothing that is too messy or too awful for God. I’ve had the times in my life when I could not give the deserving Praise to God (or so I thought I couldn’t). Today I am helping others see that God is worthy of our praise regardless of the circumstances staring in their faces. There is a HOPE in praise that is not found any other place. Only when taking the risk to PRAISE will this promise be discovered. GOD is AMAZINGLY GOOD!

As I began my worship time this morning while journaling I was compelled to write out my thanks to Jesus. As I was doing so I began to realize something I’d never given thought to. My childhood and my early adult years were ones that started with abuse and then the next 10 years were hiding within the shell of a man who was shackled from it. However, at the age of 31 I was introduced to my wife Kathy and at that point in time my life began to turn around. With Kathy I was introduced to a home filled with honesty, vulnerability that wasn’t threatening and intimacy.

In the next 42 years God has abundantly blessed me. Our children and grandchildren all know God and love Him. I have lived more years finding freedom and living in this freedom than I ever lived in the bondage of my past. Yes, breaking free from that bondage was no easy task, but I learned deeply the support system I have and how to trust in them. Those years often felt like torment, but there was a LIGHT at the end of a tunnel which I could see with Hope. God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit are at the top of this Thanksgiving list, but Kathy is the one who has faithfully shown me what trust looks like that doesn’t let fear dominate it. I needed that!

As I step into this Thanksgiving week, I do so with immense gratitude. God has never left my side and I never want to leave His. I simply want to be a good, humble and faithful servant for Him!

Obedience. This word has been on my mind for years now and particularly the present. As a child I grew to dislike it immensely. When my dad would be out of control with his anger and would take it out on us with his beatings I knew I was to do what he told me, but I despised doing so. As I got into my teen years and tried to talk to my mom about dad’s ways, she would just say that I need to do what he says. And, that would be what I’d do, but deep inside me was a growing resentment.

Doing what one is suppose to do, in most cases, is not difficult because it coincides with one’s own motivation to do well in life. As I am working with more and more couples I find that so often individuals in a marriage have grown in a selfish manner of living. It usually isn’t on purpose, we just grown into a selfish pattern of what we’d call comfortable. In so doing, our mate grows increasingly uncomfortable for their desires are left unattended. What I find sad and difficult is helping a couple see their part. Yes, they will admit this, but taking action to “change” their ways (old habits which they like) is usually a point of contention. One begins to rationalize why the change isn’t really that necessary.

In our flesh we are truly a selfish being. Obedience, doing the right thing for the right reasons, shouldn’t be so tough. But, it is one of the tougher items I see. Then, when I put it in light of following Jesus and living fully for Him, I find myself often struggling with obedience. “That can wait can’t it?” “Oh Jesus, not today, please?” Things like this come up and then I have to realize my own flesh is still just as alive as it ever has been. However, stepping into disobedience is never going to profit any walk with God or any marital growth. So, daily committing to obedience is on the priority list!

Yesterday morning I met with a lady who has begun to give monthly helping a single mom meet her financial needs. This lady said she was once in that same situation and knows how stressful and hurtful that time is. I don’t recall if I wrote about this a month ago when it started. The lady had a dream which she told to her brother and he told her to talk to me. As I heard the dream I thought about this young mom and her four kids who come for counsel. It is a beautiful thing what God has done with this situation.

I write this message above because as my morning started and I was journaling, I began to lament the crises I had worked with yesterday. It is my longest day and it had a good deal of difficulty. I had momentarily forgotten about how wonderful the day had begun. However, as I began to write this blog, immediately I was reminded of what I wrote in the first paragraph. It brought me back to reality with God. This young mom was a desperate young lady when she first came. God miraculously brought a person into her life through a dream. I don’t know how God is going to help these difficult situations others are facing, but what I do know is that their answer/s will be from God too. God is always the answer and how He completes His Work in our lives is always amazing. I know this for a fact!

What I want to say/write right now is–THANK YOU GOD!