Thanksgiving IV ~

24-30 September:  This week, I have been thankful for blessings "new every morning" - body systems working effectively, mind capable and focused, warmth inside these walls, food in the pantry....; thankful that the season of burning here in the Northwest has ended; and thankful for this counsel to us from Hebrews 10:34-36: "... You have a better possession and a lasting one [prepared for you in heaven]. Do not, therefore, fling away your [fearless] confidence, for it has a glorious and great reward. For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised." (AMP); thankful for the blessings to be found as I read the Bible - surely the apostle was right when he wrote that the Scriptures are "profitable" to all of us; thankful for God's promise to work in us - to give us new hearts (Jeremiah 24:7; Ezekiel 36:25-27,29); and thankful for His promise that is recorded in Jeremiah 29:11,12 where we read: "...'I know the plans I have for you'—this is the Lord’s declaration—'plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'" (CSB); thankful to share in the celebration of a Silver-Anniversary with a D.D. and her husband - no mean accomplishment in today's world where marriages seem to begin with "'til I'm tired of you" rather than "'til death do us part"; thankful for all in the beautiful family with which I've been blessed; and thankful for the teaching from Hebrews 10:30,31 where we read: "We know that God said, 'I will punish people for the wrongs they do; I will repay them.' And he also said, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a terrible thing to face punishment from the living God." (ERV); thankful for another day with clear skies as the sun makes its way over the eastern horizon; so-o-o thankful that the darkened mornings will eventually give way again to summer's brightness; and thankful for this promise from Proverbs 4:18 where we read: "The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day." (NLT); thankful that a D.S. is here to chauffeur D.D. back from her day-surgery in Lewiston; thankful for all the prayers that are going with her; and thankful for these words from 1 John 5:14,15: "We are certain that God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases Him. And if we know that God listens when we pray, we are sure that our prayers have already been answered." (CEV); thankful for the ride that will get me to the bank and the post office during their business hours - I don't regret my decision to stop driving after the CVA, but occasionally it brings a real disadvantage; thankful for D.D.'s successful laser surgery yesterday; and thankful for this affirmation from Psalm 65:5 where we read: "You answer us by giving us victory, and you do wonderful things to save us. People all over the world and across the distant seas trust in you." (GNT); thankful to be celebrating another of our Creator's holidays - a day He claimed as His own mark as His activities of forming the earth and its creatures ended (Genesis 2:2,3), and again when Jesus was here (Mark 2:27); thankful for the benefits of my favorite i-net resource, www.biblegateway.com; and thankful for the prayer recorded in Philippians 1:9,10 where we read: " And I am praying this: that your love may be abounding still more and more in knowledge and all perception so that you may be approving the things mattering, in-order-that you might be pure and blameless for the day of Christ," (DLNT).