From November 6 until Thanksgiving, I'll be posting everyday, talking about someone or something I'm grateful for. I invite you to participate along with me. If you have a blog and will be participating, send me the link and I'll link back here. If you don't have a blog and there is a blessing you want to talk about, email me and I'll post it along with my daily blessing. I can even post it anonymously, if you'd prefer. There's something very powerful about focusing on what's right in our lives, and I intend to live this way, walking on the path of gratitude.
Day Eight:
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| Santa Fe Chicken Soup |
I am a woman who loves good food. And by good food I don't mean fancy-pants dinners at a restaurant where the waiters are rude. I mean, home-cookin', the kind you only get at Mamaw's (my grandmother) and Mom's house, the kind that warms up your tummy and your soul. I like to cook, especially using fresh herbs and fresh produce. I think of everything I could make, my favorite thing is soup. I love putting the ingredients in that big pot on the stove, watching it simmer, the aroma filling up our house. Yep, I love food.
This morning I sat in my Mamaw's living room floor next to Mom and we made our Thanksgiving menu. We went traditional this year: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, crescent rolls, tabouli, cranberry sauce, glazed carrots, a vegetable tray, pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, pecan pie. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. We divvied up the responsibilties, wrote down who would bring what, decided where we'd buy the showpiece turkey and ham.
None of us considered how we'd pay for it. It's not something we have to worry about. But I know that for at least 400 families in my area, it IS an issue. They wonder how they'll provide even a portion of this for their families. So today, I sit here typing this and I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. I don't have to worry about how I'll buy formula or baby food for Miss A. I won't even bat an eyelash when we go buy all the ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast.
Last year our family worked together to create food baskets for two needy families in our community. It seems like a drop in the bucket, but I know that to those two families, it made a difference. This year I considered not doing that, considered spending that money elsewhere. Honestly, I was thinking that we are giving enough, that's it's just not necessary. But what God is teaching me is that true gratitude evokes a response. Today I'm reminded of what James wrote to the twelve tribes: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
I feel a stirring deep in my heart to do something, anything, to put faith in action. I have been given much, so much. And it's time to give of myself, to serve the least of these and provide for someone else's needs. Will you join me? Out of hearts filled with gratitude, will you give of yourself this season?
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