Gratitude

Hello, Friends!

I have been gone for several weeks but I am back! Having Covid-19 was not bad when I had it but regaining the energy to work was very difficult but I am back in the saddle and grateful to be back!

Speaking of gratitude, this is the time of the year we are most often grateful–Thanksgiving!

I love the Thanksgiving season but I wish we made it a daily event rather than an annual holiday. We should be just as grateful on September 17th or August 18th as we should be on the fourth Thursday of November!

Having lived the last 2 and a half years in retirement communities, I have learned many things but the most troubling is how few people say a blessing over their food! On Thanksgiving Day, families thank their Lord for His many blessings to them but why don’t they do this every day, every meal?

If you look up world hunger on the Internet you will discover a horrifying fact: 811 million people go to bed hungry every night! Why don’t we thank our Lord that we are not members of that group of 811 million people! Instead of thanking our Lord for ample food on our table, we complain about having too much cinnamon in our pumpkin pie or too little salt in our beef stew!

When I was a child, my beloved parents taught me to thank the Lord for every meal I ate. As a child, I was taught to pray before I ever ate anything. I have kept up that tradition. I can’t imagine eating a meal without thanking the Lord Who gave it to me! If your friend gave you a plate of homemade fudge with enormous pecan halves in it, wouldn’t you thank her? How much more should we thank the Creator of the universe for providing us an abundance of food?

As a child my parents taught me an old blessing that I think has been around for the last 300 years:

Come, Dear Lord Jesus and be our guest. Please bless this food and thank you for it. Please bless everyone and help everyone. In Your Holy Name I pray, Amen.

I have said that pray almost every time I have eaten for the last 70 years.

As I conclude this blog, I want to write one thing:

Thank You Dear Lord, Amen.