You Might Be a Redneck This Thanksgiving If…

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

… you’ve ever had Thanksgiving dinner on a ping-pong table.

… Thanksgiving dinner is squirrel and dumplings.

… you’ve ever reused a paper plate.

… if you have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say Cool Whip on the side.

… if you’ve ever used your ironing board as a buffet table.

… your turkey platter is an old hubcap.

… your best dishes have Dixie printed on them.

… your stuffing’s secret ingredient comes from the bait shop.

… your only condiment on the dining room table is ketchup.

… side dishes include beef jerky and Moon Pies.

… you have to go outside to get something out of the ‘fridge.

… the directions to your house include “turn off the paved road.”

… you consider pork and beans to be a gourmet food.

… you have an Elvis Jell-o mold.

… your secret family recipe is illegal.

… you serve Vienna sausage as an appetizer.

~ Author unknown

Odds and Ends

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

According to my blog stats on my WordPress dashboard, yesterday was a record day for my blog with 877 views. The previous record high day was something in the 500s. Most of those appear to be from the Thanksgiving reading, poems, and quotes posts — a lot of people must be looking for material for the holiday. I hope they found something useful. I don’t know if that number means people actually saw my posts or if my posts just came up on an Internet search — probably the latter. Of course, with over 29,000 spam comments (most ably captured by Akismet) since the inception of this blog, maybe a lot of those views were spambots.
I had written earlier about dental woes…..I had an appointment to have a permanent crown put in this past week and thought I was done for a while. But the dentist said with this one he had had to drill away very close to the nerve (in fact, I narrowly escaped a root canal) so he just wanted to put temporary seal on this one for a few months and see how I do with it. Unfortunately it does hurt when I bite down directly on it, so I don’t know what the alternative is. I don’t want to go through another bridge experience — not only is it traumatic, it’s expensive, especially after just having paid for a crown for this same tooth. But I guess we’ll see what happens. When I went to have my permanent bridge put in on the other side, that part went relatively easily (it was the extraction and drilling earlier that was hard to sit through), so I was expecting this visit — just taking off the temporary crown and putting on the permanent one – to be pretty easy. But getting the temporary off hurt and then the scraping to get the temporary glue off was quite painful. The assistant kept saying, “That’s not too bad, is it?” No, I always sit in the dentist’s chair with white-knuckles hands grasping the armrests. And I get to do it again in a few months since he only wanted a temporary seal this time! Argh. I wonder if I can get numbed for that.
I don’t know why I put off things I dread when it would be such a relief to get them over with. And I don’t know why I dread making phone calls to make or change appointments, but I do. I finally called this morning to change Jason’s appointment for getting his wisdom teeth out. That was scheduled for Wednesday — the day before Thanksgiving. I had been trying to talk him into changing it to Christmas break because he’d have a longer time to recover. Plus his girlfriend will be here for Thanksgiving break, and it wouldn’t be much fun for her to have her boyfriend sleeping off the effects of anesthetic and waking up with chipmunk cheeks and pain. It took us a while to figure out when to try to reschedule it for, but we finally got that done.
Speaking of girlfriends….this is our first experience with one. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the whole courtship vs. dating issue. We don’t embrace everything involved with the courtship model, but we did feel the repeated date/go together/break up cycle was not good training for marriage, so we encouraged them to avoid pairing off or having a specific girlfriend during their high school years and rather do things as a group. So they’ve been “in like” before, but this is the first full-fledged actual girlfriend. I have to say it has been nice to have another female around the house! She’s very sweet and everyone seems to like her and she seems to like all of us. They are able to spend most Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings here, and it has been fun getting to know her (and seeing how Jason acts. 🙂 )
We finally saw the Amazing Grace DVD this past weekend. You have to remember that it is a Hollywood film about a Christian and not a Christian film — there are a few words I wish they hadn’t put in — but otherwise I thought it was very good. The film seems in keeping with other things I had read about Wilberforce, and the filmmakers portrayed him as a genuine, heartfelt, joyful believer who acted on his principals tenaciously until he saw them through. It was amazing to hear the arguments of the opposition for the slave trade — the economy, the charges of sedition, etc. — while ignoring the face of human suffering. All in all it was a very inspiring film. I’d like to find a good biography of Wilberforce.
I’m still working on those missionary Christmas gifts. Even a ministry you love and enjoy has its frustrations…..I won’t go into that, but I am hoping to have even the Stateside packages out this week and be able to close the door on that and start thinking about our own Christmas. There is no more “surface mail,” the cheapest overseas rate. The way it was explained to me was that most customers preferred speed to a lower price. So even still I think everything will get there on time, and I think the higher shipping methods are more reliable. We’ll just have to see what it all costs and then decide if we should change anything for next year. We want to be a blessing and to be generous, but we want to be good stewards, too, and need to find the right balance.

So — it looks like my week is cut out for me. Hope you have a good day!

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 54

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

1 Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. 2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

3 For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

4 Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

5 He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.

6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.

7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

Once during my course of reading the Bible through, while reading about David’s life in I & II Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, I slowed down and looked up the cross references to the Psalms David had written during several of those incidents. Of course, we can do it the other way, too — when reading the Psalms we can look up the cross references to the ones that have them back to an incident in the Old Testament. Though in one sense we can just take the Psalms at face value, it really enriched the reading of both the narrative and the Psalms to know the context of each.

Psalm 54 was written concerning events in I Samuel 23 when David was running for his life from King Saul, hiding out in Ziph, and the Ziphites offered to give him up to Saul. “For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them,” verse 3. But David turns again to the only One who can help, the One in whom he has placed His confidence. He calls out for deliverance, relies in faith on God to provide it, and promises to praise and sacrifice to Him.

In this day and time there are still those with very real physical enemies; there are those who are persecuted for their faith. God will deliver them one way or another. We might also face those who are against us without just cause and those who would betray us: God is sufficient for even that.

Though these days in America we don’t usually face physical persecution for our faith and rarely have enemies that are after our lives, we do have an enemy, “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:7-9). We will ultimately be delivered from even him one day, and until then we can call out to God for deliverance from every battle in which we find ourselves.

See our Psalms Sunday hostess at Butterfly Kisses for more thoughts on this Psalm.

Thanksgiving Bible study

Posted on November 17, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Here are just a few verses dealing with Thanksgiving. This is by no means an exhaustive study: it’s just a result of looking up “thanks” and “thanksgiving” in an online concordance. Many of the passages would fit under multiple headings and I am sure there are others that could be added. But this is a good start. It would be profitable to study many of these verses within the context of the passages they came from.

And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will. Leviticus 22:29.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7.

It is a sacrifice:

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13:15.

It is often a testimony to others of God’s person and work:

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Psalm 26:7

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. Psalm 69:30-31.

Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. II Corinthians 1:11.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. II Corinthians 4:15.

For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. II Corinthians 9:12-14.

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 7:11-12.

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. I Chronicles 16: 8-9.

And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. I Chronicles 16:35.

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. Psalm 79:13.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1-2.

Often coupled with joy and singing:

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. Nehemiah 12:27.

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. I Chronicles 16: 8-9.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:2-4.

Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God. Psalm 147:6.

Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Psalm 18:49

Psalm 93:1-3;

Often coupled with prayer:

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:14-15.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. Psalm 116:17.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2.

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:16.

A result of meditating on God’s Word:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:16-17.

A result of being filled with the Spirit:

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Ephesians 5:18-21.

Reasons to thank the Lord:

It’s commanded:

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2.
His greatness, His creation:

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Psalm 95: 1-5

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. Psalm 107:21-22.

His comfort:

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51: 3.

His bountiful supply:

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. II Corinthians 9:11.
His unspeakable gift:

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. II Corinthians 9:15.

Meat:

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. I Timothy 4:3-5; Matthew 15:36

Deliverance from enemies:

And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name. II Samuel 22:49-50

And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. I Chronicles 16:35.

Psalm 18:48-50

His goodness:

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. I Chronicles 16:34; Ezra 3:11; Psalm 106:1; 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136.

His holiness:

Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Psalm 30:4.

His deliverance from sorrow:

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. Psalm 30:11-12

His righteous judgments:

At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. Psalm 119: 62.

Victory over death:

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:56-57.

Causing us to triumph, making Himself known through us:

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. II Corinthians 2:14.

His working through other people:

But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. II Corinthians 8:16.

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:16.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints. Col. 1:2-4

I Thessalonians 1:1-3; 3:9-10; II Thessalonians 2:13-14.

Saving us:

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14.

All things:

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20.

In everything:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18.

Authorities:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. I Timothy 2:1-3.

His power and reign:

Saying, We give thee thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned Revelation 11:17.

Results in worship:

And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:9-11.

Other passages:

Psalm 105:1-3

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: I love _____

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: I Love ____ | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

Most of these have appeared on my blog before, since I have naturally blogged about things I love. 🙂

At the top of the list of people I love would be God. I don’t mean to be disrespectful or demeaning or belittling to Him in any way by including Him on a list with lesser things, but, really, how can I make a list of what I love and not include Him? And though this is only a representation of Christ (I wrestled with the whole graven images issue here), I love the depiction of the Good Shepherd who found His dearly loved lost sheep.

I love my Bible and I am so glad to have it.

I love my family:

I love hearts and pink roses:

I love chocolate, especially semi-sweet:

I love my extended family, autumn, pizza, Mexican food, reading, friends, holidays, old movies….and probably a lot more, but I’ll stop now. 🙂

Thanksgiving decorations

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

For Kelli’s “Giving Thanks” week and for today’s Show and Tell Friday I wanted to show my Thanksgiving decorations.

I got this little Pilgrim and Indian group at a craft show when we lived in GA.

This is a similar little group but I bought it somewhere else that I can’t remember. Can you tell I like happy-faced tole-painted people? 🙂

I’ve shown some of my Boyd’s Bear figurines before. My husband just got this Thanksgiving one for me last year.

And here’s a little stuffed turkey — stuffed with fluff, that is.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“

Quotes on Thanksgiving and thankfulness

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Barbara Harper

“Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as… served the company almost a week… Many of the Indians came amongst us and… their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought… And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God we are…far from want.”

~ Edward Winslow, Plymouth, Massachusetts, December, 1621
Christian, Pilgrim

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues
~ Cicero

O Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
~ William Shakespeare

The Pilgrims came to America not to accumulate riches but to worship God, and the greatest wealth they left unborn generations was their heroic example of sacrifice that their souls might be free.
~ Harry Moyle Tippett

Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow, A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Measured by the standards of men of their time, [the Pilgrims] were the humble of the earth. Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty. In appearance weak and persecuted they came – rejected, despised – an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy destined to free mankind.
~ Calvin Coolidge

Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is “good,” because is it good, if “bad” because it works in us patience, humility, and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.
~ C. S. Lewis

No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with the gratitude to the Giver of good who has blessed us.
~ Theodore Roosevelt

Thanksgiving, to be truly thanksgiving, is first thanks, then giving.
~ Unknown

In the old Anglo-Saxon, to be “thankful” meant to be “thinkful.” Thinking of one’s blessings should stir one to gratitude.
~ Unknown

This is the holy reasoning of love; it draws no license from grace, but rather feels the strong constraints of gratitude leading it to holiness.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

O Thou Who has given us so much, mercifully grant us one more thing: a grateful heart.
~George Herbert

More Thanksgiving -related content on this blog:

Thanksgiving Bible Study
Thanksgiving devotional reading is here.
Last year’s collection of Thanksgiving quotes are here.
Thanksgiving “funnies” are here and A “Redneck Thanksgiving” is here.
Thanksgiving poems are here and More Thanksgiving Poems are here.

Join us for Kelli’s “Giving Thanks” event this week at There’s No Place Like Home.

And since I have thirteen quotes, I’ll include this for a Thursday Thirteen. 😀

(Top and bottom graphics are from Snapshots of Joy)

Booking Through Thursday: Preservatives

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

How many of us write notes in our books? Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

I don’t think I mark or leave notes in fiction books generally. I can remember doing it once in a Christian fiction book that had a doctrinal issue I disagreed with that I felt important enough to comment on for the person I was passing the book on to, and once for a book I was reviewing so that I could remember parts I wanted to quote or comment on.

Though most of my books are paperback, I do have several good hardback sets of classics that I would never mark in. But I do need to start making lists of quotes from fiction books that inspire me, though, so I don’t forget them.

I do underline, mark lines or paragraphs, or leave little post-it notes in non-fiction books, though. And in my Bible I often write notes from a sermon I’ve heard or a thought about a certain passage or a reference to another passage.

Thanksgiving poems

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home is hostessing a week of Giving Thanks. Bloggers can link up every day this week through Saturday with Thanksgiving poems, memories, recipes, decorating ideas, etc., to get our hearts into a Thanksgiving frame of mind and not let it slip by on the way to the Christmas season.

So far I have been linking to posts from last year because I had put up a lot of Thanksgiving posts then, like Thanksgiving devotional reading and Thanksgiving “funnies.” But I had posted several different poems, so I wanted to put those all in one place, plus add a new one or two.

Giving Thanks

For the hay and the corn and the wheat that is reaped,
For the labor well done, and the barns that are heaped,
For the sun and the dew and the sweet honeycomb,
For the rose and the song and the harvest brought home –
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the trade and the skill and the wealth in our land,
For the cunning and strength of the workingman’s hand,
For the good that our artists and poets have taught,
For the friendship that hope and affection have brought –
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the homes that with purest affection are blest,
For the season of plenty and well-deserved rest,
For our country extending from sea unto sea;
The land that is known as the “Land of the Free” –
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

~ Author Unknown

Thanksgiving

Dear Lord—I’m thankful for the home I knew in early youth,
Where I first heard from Mother’s lips the story of your truth.
I’m thankful for the fellowship with friends who ever hold
Within their hearts Your gift of love, as world events unfold,
I’m thankful for Your peace that stills my heart, and light that guides
My course, as chaos rushes by on swiftly changing tides.
But thankful most—for faith that looks beyond a mortal sky
To truth—to your unchanging truth that cannot ever die!

~ Sarah Mizelle Morgan

From The Valley of Vision:

Praise and Thanksgiving

O my God,
Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,
my heart admires, adores, loves thee,
for my little vessel is as full as it can be,
and I would pour out all that fullness before thee in ceaseless flow.
When I think upon and converse with thee
ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,
ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,
ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,
crowding into every moment of happiness.
I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,
for adorning it, sanctifying it,
though it is fixed in barren soil;
for the body thou hast given me,
for preserving its strength and vigour,
for providing senses to enjoy delights,
for the ease and freedom of my limbs,
for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;
for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,
for a full table and overflowing cup,
for appetite, taste, sweetness,
for social joys of relatives and friends,
for ability to serve others,
for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,
for a mind to care for my fellow-men,
for opportunities of spreading happiness around,
for loved ones in the joys of heaven,
for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly,
I love thee above the powers of language to express,
for what thou art to thy creatures.
Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.

For All The Blessings Of The Year

For all the blessings of the year,
For all the friends we hold so dear,
For peace on earth, both far and near,
We thank Thee, Lord.

For life and health, those common things,
Which every day and hour brings,
For home, where our affection clings,
We thank Thee, Lord.

For love of Thine, which never tires,
Which all our better thought inspires,
And warms our lives with heavenly fires,
We thank Thee, Lord.

~ Author unknown

Another one I posted last year, but I will just link to since someone else posted it for the “Giving Thanks” week already, is Edgar’s Guest’s “Thanksgiving.”

More Thanksgiving -related posts on this blog:

Thanksgiving Bible Study
Thanksgiving readings and devotionals are here.
Some Thanksgiving quotes are here.
More Thanksgiving quotes are here.
Thanksgiving “funnies” are here and A “Redneck Thanksgiving” is here.
More Thanksgiving poems are here.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Two quick and easy cookie recipes

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Sometimes a child forgets to tell us he needs to bring cookies for something at school or church until the last minute, or sometimes our schedule just gets out of control and we’re short on time to bring cookies for a church fellowship or get-together with friends, or sometimes we just want a little homemade sweetness but we don’t have (or want to spend) a lot of time preparing it. These are a couple of my favorite quick, easy, simple cookie recipes.

Double Delicious Cookie Bars

(Note: These contain peanut butter chips, but they can be omitted and additional chocolate chips used instead if you’re taking this somewhere where someone might have peanut allergies)

1/2 c. margarine or butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. shortening

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for glass dish). In a 9 x 13-inch pan, melt margarine in oven. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over margarine. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top with 12-ounce packages chocolate chips and peanut butter chips; press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and shortening; drizzle over bars. Cut into bars when cool. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

These are a pared-down version of the originals but taste every bit as good. My son’s girlfriend got this recipe in one of her classes.

1 c. peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
Hershey’s Kisses

Thoroughly mix together peanut butter, sugar, and egg. Drop by teaspoonful or roll into 1 inch balls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 10-11 minutes, until slightly browned. Immediately place an unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss in the center of each cookie and press down. Let sit on pan for a minute or two, then remove from pan. Let cool before storing. Makes 24-26.