"Oh that men would praise [and confess to] the LORD HIS goodness and loving kindness, and HIS wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and rehearse HIS deeds with shouts of joy and HIS singing!" Psalm 107:21-22 Amplified
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
It's been cold and overcast here in Alabama and a good cozy day to stay inside...in fact i stayed in my pj's and housecoat until this afternoon. My cold/cough/ headache /sore throat is still hanging on. I told my husband when he left for work that i thought i would go back to bed. I never do that, but today i wasn't feeling good. I didn't make it back to bed, but i felt good enough to spend time in my little place in the "joy" room with the LORD on the little love seat. I am thankful i was able to focus and concentrate, even though i was feeling badly. Just me and Troy and the LORD sitting on the couch surrounded by pictures of my loved ones i pray for, daily calendars from Oswald Chambers, Elisabeth Elliot, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Hannah Hurnard, and the Love Dare calendar, prayer lists, my John MacArthur One Year Bible and of course my devotion books...lots of devotion books:). On the back of the couch, squeezed in between me and the couch is Troy, our Maltipoo. He loves to lay on the back of the couch, snuggled up real close to me and does that every morning when i have my time with JESUS. I forgot to mention something i added just yesterday...a yellow legal pad...one of those looong yellow legal pads to jot down the things i am thankful for. This simple little yellow pad is a key to transforming my life and blessing the LORD.
 |
| I am thankful for my favorite place to start the day... |
I have been really struggling with being thankful. Instead my emotions have been naturally leading me to focus on all the negative things i don't like about my family and friends, and my circumstances in life. Does that ever happen to you? At 50, and going through some hormonal changes, i'm sure that's had a lot to do with my "toxic" feelings. Last Thursday morning, when i got up for Thanksgiving, the last thing i felt like doing was giving thanks for anything. GOD gently reminded me to get out my notebook and began writing things down that i was thankful for. After sitting there for several minutes and my list was growing longer and longer, my spirits were truly lifted.. i know it blessed the LORD for me to take time and thank HIM for HIS blessings in my life.
 |
| Counting my blessings...naming them one by one. |
A couple of weeks ago, the LORD reminded me through friends on FB who were writing down the things they were thankful for to start using my notebook again that i started last year when my body was going crazy on me. He reminded me how miserable last Thanksgiving, last summer, and last fall was for me....real miserable. HE led me to read a book about a lady that wrote down a 1,000 things she was thankful for and how it transformed her life. I began doing that last year, not because i felt thankful but because i needed to count my blessings instead of focusing on the uncomfortableness my body was going through for months. Somewhere along the way this year, i stopped writing in my little journal. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and began writing again. I told Hannah Beth when she was home for Thanksgiving i needed to buy a new one, because i was almost out of pages, and then the LORD led me to go to the homeschool closet (yes, i still have a homeschool closet though we haven't homeschooled in a few years...i love it when the kids still go to it and get out school supplies, like index cards and paper) and got out one of those long yellow legal pads. I started writing down the things i was thankful for yesterday and numbering them. I love having that big long sheet of paper because it encourages me to write more. It's not hard at all to think of things i'm thankful for once i get going, and it's really neat to see that long page fill up with GOD's blessings, HIS love, and HIS tendermercies. I'm not sure what it is...but GOD tells us over and over to thank HIM, in everything...there is something supernatural about doing that that moves the heart of GOD and moves our heart.
"It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life."
-Elisabeth Elliot
"It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life."
-Elisabeth Elliot
 |
| So thankful for my brother's family and his son's new bride! |
 |
| My Daddy with his first greatgrandbaby, Caleb- So thankful for both... |
Tonight i was talking to my cousin on the phone and he was telling me about his little granddaughter who is almost four and is unable to feed herself. She is at Children's hospital now, where they are trying to teach her how to eat. She gets hooked up to an IV every night when she goes to bed for her nutrition, but her little body is failing her. Please pray for her and her sweet family. One of our friends Johnny grew up with lost his 28 year old son in a car accident this past weekend. Gene Chizik got fired as Auburn's coach after a miserable season after winning the national championship just two years ago. Gene is a man of GOD and is learning another step of faith in giving thanks in everything...even when you get fired.
"The true CHRIST is thankful for all things. How is it possible to be thankful for all things? Because we trust HIM. Trust is the ground of our Thanksgiving." Elisabeth Elliot
"The true CHRIST is thankful for all things. How is it possible to be thankful for all things? Because we trust HIM. Trust is the ground of our Thanksgiving." Elisabeth Elliot
You and i could go on and on with difficult and tragic situations that can and do often rob us of our joy and peace in CHRIST JESUS. Not only difficult situations, but being envious of others robs us of our joy too.
Advertisements often have one major goal: to make us discontented, woefully dissatisfied with who we are and what we have.
-Chuck Swindoll
There is something supernatural about giving thanks that unleashes GOD's power in our lives and the lives of others, especially in difficult times.
Advertisements often have one major goal: to make us discontented, woefully dissatisfied with who we are and what we have.
-Chuck Swindoll
There is something supernatural about giving thanks that unleashes GOD's power in our lives and the lives of others, especially in difficult times.
"When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in difficult circumstances, there is a fragrance that flows forth out of our lives to bless the LORD and others." Nancy Leigh DeMoss,
www.reviveourhearts.com
www.reviveourhearts.com
One of the friends that blessed me on FB the most as she was writing her thanks each day was my friend Ronda. Ronda's husband was killed in a car accident in the spring, and she was left a widow with two teenagers, and a 20 year old. Her husband had been wrestling with brain cancer for several years. When Al died, Ronda was left with the strain of running the family business that was already having financial struggles. I know she has and continues to go through a difficult time, but each day in November, she has bravely shared something that she was thankful for...one day it was Hope...the hope that is ours in CHRIST JESUS, and that she will see her husband again in heaven. There truly was a fragrant that flowed forth out of Ronda's life that blessed the LORD and all who read Ronda's thanksgiving posts.
JESUS, this JESUS that came into the world as a little baby, died to save us from our sins, and he ROSE from the grave three days later! He's Alive, just like i wrote about a couple of weeks ago, when i felt HIS nearness in my little kitchen as i washed the dishes and grieved over the recent elections. I was listening to the song, "This Blood," http://www.youtube.
This morning in my "Amazing Grace," devotion book, it too was about thanking GOD...in particularly for our salvation.
"Thanks be to GOD for HIS indescribably gift! ( 2 Cor. 9:15) The gift of salvation-a personal relationship with almighty GOD-what an indescribably gift! Yet how often do we sincerely thank our LORD for all that HE has done in making this possible: Our lack of praise and thanksgiving for HIS gift of salvation can be likened to the response of the ten lepers after being miraculously healed by CHRIST (Luke 17:11-19). Only one returned to express gratitude. The interest of the other nine was centered more in what had happened to them personally than in remembering the One who had performed the miracle in their lives. Are we ever guilty of the same carelessness? It is interesting to imagine the life-long remorse that characterized these nine ungrateful lives:
I meant to go back, but you may guess I was filled with amazement, I cannot express
To think that after those horrible years, that passion of loathing and passion of fears,
Of sores unendurable-eaten, defiled-my flesh was as smooth as the flesh of a child.
I was drunken with joy; I was crazy with glee; I scarcely could walk and I scarcely could see.
For the dazzle of sunshine where all had been black; but I meant to go back, O I meant to go back!
I had thought to return, when people came out; there were tears of rejoicing and laughter and shout;
My cup was so full I seemed nothing to lack! But I meant to go back, Oh, I meant to go back!
Do you know JESUS CHRIST as your personal LORD and SAVIOR? Have you invited HIM to come and cleanse you of your sins, and surrender your heart to HIM? I invite you now, to ask HIM to cleanse you, and make you whole. Then thank HIM for the price HE paid to do that for you. "For GOD loved the world so much, that HE gave HIS ONE and only SON, so that everyone who believes in HIM will not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
How many opportunities have you and i missed to thank the LORD because we don't take time to thank HIM. Get you a yellow legal pad and start thanking HIM today! You can get a whole stack of legal pads at Staples, and i plan to fill up a stack of them thanking the LORD. Our pastor told us about a lady who had 14,000 Reasons to Thank GOD. You and i do too, and more...let's get going, and bless the LORD by thanking HIM...
This week the LORD used another song to really speak to my heart , a song i've been listening to several times today called, "10,000 Reasons (Bless the LORD, O My Soul) As i have started writing down my thanksgivings to the LORD, i am amazed at the difference it makes in my attitude...which definitely needed changing. But it also is a blessing to the LORD when we take time to thank HIM. I was sitting in church Sunday morning listening to a wonderful message about being thankful our pastor was preaching and my daughter texted me and thanked me for the food i had bought for her while she was home. She was on her way back to school and had just left. I did text her back (during church:), and told her i knew now how it made GOD feel when we thank HIM....it really blessed me, and it blesses HIM so much when we thank HIM. I want to bless the LORD and as we remember to bless HIM and thank HIM...oh how HE blesses us! I hope you'll take time to listen to this beautiful song, and let HIS love minister to you http://www.youtube.com/
I am thankful for the time we had this week together with our family....HB was home from school for a week, John Mac was home for the weekend and was in and out, and we are so blessed. One of the fun things we enjoyed was watching "Duck Dynasty" together.
 |
I am thankful for special times as a family...watching "Duck Dynasty," together. |
Speaking of Johnny, he'll be rolling in soon, and i need to get some clothes folded. It's starting to look a lot like CHRISTmas around here...i'm excited, we have a live CHRISTmas tree for the first time i can remember in years. It's a little one, but it's ALIVE, like my JESUS.... "Bless the LORD, O My Soul!" Outside, we have a beautiful tree on the front porch...complete with big bulb lights like i grew up with..."Happy, Happy, Happy!"
 |
| I am thankful for BIG LIGHTS |
A month from today, my boy marries the girl of his heart's desire. Please be in prayer for all of us, as we make the final preparations for the wedding, and pray their wedding and marriage will "Bless the LORD, O My Soul," and bear much fruit for our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
 |
| I am thankful for GOD giving my son the desires of his heart and my new daughter in law to be. 4 More Weeks Psalm 37:4 "Delight Yourself in the LORD and HE will give you the desires of your heart." |
December 8th and 9th our choir and music ministry, at FBC will be sharing "An Athens CHRISTmas." This is a great opportunity to invite your friends and Come and Bless the LORD by joining in with us to celebrate HIS birth...i sure hope to see you there. I love being a part of the music ministry at First Baptist Athens...thank you, LORD!
I love playing the drums for JESUS!
I'm sorry i haven't filled you in on Dana Grammer in a while, but she has been released to move back to Alabama with her baby Tristan and she is Happy! Happy! Happy! She continues to be in the process of getting custody of her son, Zach. Her husband hasn't been cleared of his charges for spanking their son in the backyard, but he and Dana are very much together (even though separated by distance for now) and are so very thankful for GOD restoring their family thus far. She was able to be with Zach over Thanksgiving, she even made the Thanksgiving meal for all of her family here in Alabama! Dana sure looks forward to the day her husband can join them here in Alabama and they all be together as a family again. Please continue to remember their sweet family in your prayers.
 |
| I am thankful that Dana is back in Alabama with her sons and GOD is restoring her family! |
I am so very thankful for you, and your sweet prayers on behalf of our family and loved ones. Thank you so very much...your prayers and sweet fellowship in CHRIST JESUS bless me, bless the LORD and make me Happy! Happy! Happy!
With all HIS love,
mitzi
Let all that I am praise the Lord ; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord ; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! (Psalms 103:1-5 NLT)
"10,000 Reasons (Bless the LORD, O My Soul)
No comments:
Post a Comment