Thankful Thursdays // Weeks Two & Three

Faith.

What are you doing?

It's Tuesday.

Tuesday.

Not Thursday.

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE??


Well... I basically had this thing ready to post this past Thursday, but then I got busy getting ready for a conference our family was going to this past weekend, and I didn't get around to finishing it and actually posting it on the day it should have been posted... But, oh, well, forget the excuses. Sometimes real life gets in the way of bloggish things... (though, that isn't really a bad thing most of the time), but here I am back, finally.
The reason I'm posting today was that I wanted to post this before this coming Thursday because I really wanted to do something on a different thankful topic for this Thursday. (I actually still need to write up that post, so hopefully it will be ready for this Thursday so I can get back on schedule with this series... well, we'll see what happens with that.)
Hopefully that all made sense; I'm sorry if that was kind of a rambly explanation. Anyway, let's get to the actual post, shall we? :P

So for the past couple weeks, I've been reading and thinking on some Scriptures on thankfulness and thanksgiving that I've been wanting to share with you all. These are a few verses that I found: (Emphasis is mine.)

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name." Psalm 100:4

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God..." Philippians 4:6

"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." Psalm 95:2


When we come to God in prayer, we should come in with a thankful attitude. It really caught my attention to find so many verses that all say about when coming to God in prayer -- "into His presence", "gates", or "courts" -- to come in with thanksgiving. We shouldn't come in with complaining, or begging, or pleading... we should come with thanksgiving! And we don't have to beg or complain or plead to God. He gives us "richly all things to enjoy!" (1 Tim. 6:17)
What if whenever you came to your parents to ask them for something, you always asked them in a begging, complaining, or ungrateful manner? Do you think they would enjoy that? Do you think that would move them more to give you that thing? Probably not. So why would we do this with our Heavenly Father? God already wants to meet our needs and help His children out -- we don't have to beg. We should come to our Father with a grateful heart and praising attitude.

And also, we shouldn't just always come to God and talk to Him only when we have a problem or want to to ask him for something. Of course we can come to God with our problems and ask Him for things -- and should do so -- but we also need to take the time to just simply praise Him and thank Him for things he's done in our lives, and talk with Him, just as we would with our earthly father or mother.

So that's what's been on my mind recently. There's a whole lot more you could pull out of these verses as well, but there's just a couple of aspects that I wanted to share with you guys today. :)

~~~

And now, here we go again! This is what I found to be thankful for these past two weeks. (I actually just now realized that with a few things I wrote the same thing on more than one day... but I guess there's no rule against it, so... :P)

Week 2:

Friday: 
- Plenty of clothes to wear

Saturday: 
- That today is Saturday!
- We got to visit a pumpkin patch and do a corn maze today - An awesome mom with whom I can talk about various things

Sunday:

- Getting to hang out with a friend I don't get to see often

- The refreshing rain (The cloudy and rainy weather at first made the day seem gloomy, but then I remembered how much we've needed a good rain, and so it made me feel more grateful to God for it and reminded me of the verse in Matthew 5 that says that He "sends rain on the just and on the unjust.")

Monday: 
- That someone invented pre-sticky/sealed envelopes
- The sunshine

Tuesday:
- The beautiful mountain views and landscape we have around our house
- The leaves on our trees changing to beautiful colors
- The weather's been just right today; not too hot and not too cold
- That it's just been a gorgeous day!

Wednesday 
- Always having plenty of food to eat
- Our adorable kitties :)
- 12 Empowerment Truths About The Prodigal Son Two Sons in Want by Terry Tripp (I started reading it today, and it's been so good!)

Thursday 
- Beautiful, gorgeous weather (again)
- Electricity
- A God Who really understands me, and helps me to understand Him and His character better every day, and helps me to see beyond my own way of thinking into His way of thinking.

Week 3:

Friday 
- I'm healthy
- Our family's camera

Saturday 
- God is always there for me, in the good times and bad
- I live in a place where I can have my own Bible and read it without fear of being arrested or killed for having one
- Great blogging friends

Sunday 
- Having indoor plumbing and electricity
- That we "gained" an hour today!

Monday 
- Being able to still spend time with my brothers raking up and jumping in leaf piles
- Great siblings that I get along with pretty well

Tuesday 
- That I have the privilege to vote for who gets elected in this country

Wednesday 
- Always having plenty of food to eat
- Hot showers

Thursday 
- We have internet access
- I've been blessed with plenty of clothes to wear
- My cute backpack that I got as a graduation gift

Well, that's all for today. Do you have a favorite verse on thankfulness?


Have a great week, everyone!
~Faith