Thanksgiving: A Day to Give Thanks to the One Who Deserves It - One Year Later

Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Canadians! Hope you've got a great day of consuming large amounts of turkey, hanging out with family and friends and enjoying God's blessings planned. Now, speaking of Thanksgiving, you may (or may not) remember that one year ago from today I wrote a Thanksgiving post about what I was thankful for. It was such a good exercise for me, here it is a year later, I thought I'd do the same thing! This is something I want to do to celebrate Thanksgiving, a day truly to give thanks to the One who deserves it.

I am thankful to the Lord for blessing me with ...

• His constant faithfulness, and how graciously He's extended it to me and taught me that He'll never give up on me
• His Son and the atonement He made for my sins and the wrath He bore for me upon the cross
• friends, old and new, who encourage me and tease me and love me and laugh with me (and occasionally at me!) and show me what true friendship means
• books, that edify me and draw me closer to God and entertain me with stories and bless me
• the Bible, more important that any human-authored book, that teaches me what it means to love God and people and live my life for God's glory
• my grandparents, and how they love me and are an unending example to me of God's grace and His kindness
• good music, and how it makes me think more about God and sanctifies me and makes me want to dance and cry and trust Him more
• bacon (what thankful list would be complete without bacon?)
• my dad, and how he leads our family and our church and loves me and teaches me and memorizes Scripture with me and holds me accountable and shows me what it means to rely on the Lord for everything
• my mom, and how she serves our family and our church and does my laundry and teaches me what it means to be a godly young woman and puts up with my endless dancing and loves me and shows me what it means to be a woman after God's own heart
• my brother, and how he serves everyone and teaches me patience and gives me the last cookie and goes to my shows and makes crazy movies with me and puts up with my obsessiveness and shows me what it means to be a servant
• His sovereignty over everything
• my drama class, and the fun we have and the times we dance randomly and their amazing friendship and their love for me
• my church, and the incredible people there and the love they have for God and each other and their faithfulness and kindness to me
• saving me and redeeming me and adopting me so I can call Him, "Abba, Father!"
• a super vacation coming up at the end of October
• forgiveness from my many sins and compassion in dealing with them
• the ability to worship with God's people freely three times a week without fear of arrest or death or persecution
• His Spirit and the conviction it grants me
• His mercy and grace, and how He constantly gives me what I do not deserve

The list could go on and on, but I think I'll stop there. What are you thankful for?