To start, here is the poem.
If a basket were filled
With all the things I'm
thankful for
My basket would be
overflowing
And spilling out upon the
floor
I'm thankful for a God
Who loves me more than I
could know
And a family who loves me
Helping me to spiritually
grow
The freedom in my nation
Allows me to worship
without fear
And I am deeply grateful
to those
Who for it paid a cost so
dear
I'm thankful for my
country home
Far from noise and city
lights
Where day or night I'm
never far
From amazing God-breathed
sights
I love my precious pets
Which turn our land into
a zoo
They make me laugh and
smile
They who cluck, baa, meow,
and moo
I'm thankful for our
little horse
Oh so majestic, tender,
and sweet
And when I ride her
through the fields
It is always such a treat
Without my family I'd be
nothing
They never fail to bring
me cheer
Even in the hardest of
moments
My family shares in every
tear
So as you can see my
basket is full
Full of thanks for God,
family, and living
May you now go out and
count your blessings
Wishing all a happy
Thanksgiving
Now for a bit about my Thanksgiving:
Our Praise Jar |
For the last few
years, my family has been celebrating our Thanksgiving the day
before, and on the actual day of Thanksgiving, we deliver meals to shut-ins through a program our nearby town does. After that we go to my grandparents and put up my
Grandma's tree the day after Thanksgiving. On our Thanksgiving, well,
let's just say that it was fun and interesting. Before I actually go
into our day, I should first explain our Thanksgiving tradition. We
call it, the Praise Jar. Throughout the year, whenever we see a
moment in our life where it was so obvious that God protected,
provided, and was with us, we write it down and put it in the jar.
So, to start our day, we made hot drinks and sat by the fire while
the turkey was in the oven and began reading aloud our praises. It
was amazing to see all the times when we thought, “I'll never
forget that time” and.
. . we do. This is such an encouraging
reminder to observe all the ways that God's hand was watching over
us. Once we were done, we took a walk with Dream (our horse) and
enjoyed the fresh air. When we returned. . . back to the kitchen! Here is
where the first interesting thing occurred. Dad felt like he should
check our mail. (Remember, it was the day before Thanksgiving
so mail would still come.) When he went to turn on our van, the
battery was dead! (Ok, ok. I must admit it was my fault. I left the light on above my seat. Oops!) Since he couldn't use the van yet, he checked the mail with the truck while the
van was charging. When he got back, he decided to take the van for a longer drive to make sure that it would hold the charge for the trips we had planned for the following day. Interesting thing number two. Just a few
minutes after he left, he returned. “Our sheep is in the road!”
(For those of you who don't know, several years back a
sheep hopped into our field and has stayed ever since. We had tried
to find its owner but never did.) So, just as dinner was about ready,
we hopped in the cars and drove down to our lower property to chase the
lone sheep into our field while keeping our two cows in! When
we got down there, the sheep was back in the field! By this time it was nearly dark. Dad and I walked
the fence and repaired the place where she could have gotten
out. Oh my, what an afternoon! Once we got back we had a cold Thanksgiving meal but we already had our first praise for the next year as we saw how God was at work and uses even things that could have turned out bad for good.
The next day we
went into town and delivered the meals. It was neat to see these people and hear their stories. One senior we had met two years ago while delivering meals and we were able to chat and spend some time with him which was fun. Then we went to my grandparents along the coast and had
another Thanksgiving meal with them. Thankfully, this one was much
more relaxing than the day before! The day after, we set up Grandma's tree
and went to an Italian coffee shop for our traditional, three-generation family picture.
Thanks for reading!
How was your Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Did anything exciting happen on your Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear about it!
What a lovely poem! I love it, it's such a great work of art. You are a talented writer, Bethany, and I'm so amazed at how well you did on this. :)
ReplyDeleteOur Thanksgiving was good. Quiet (even though we had eighteen people here) and such a warm and wonderful time with my family. It was just a really, really peaceful day. I can't describe how peaceful it felt. :) It was nice. Except in the evening the guys turned on football... then the rest of us left the room because they were yelling so loud. ;)
Thanks for posting this wonderful poem and sharing your Thanksgiving day and tradition with us. I enjoyed it!
Well, thank you! However, I must admit that I did have a little help on the poem. . . hehehe. Thank anyways!
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