What are you Thankful for?

I was going to post this the other day and then went through some adversity and forgot, so I was happy to be reminded by a friends blog.

I marvel at the thought of being Thankful for adversity because thanking the Lord God for all things helps us to grow and learn. To live in Thanksgiving daily is a challenge at times, so many things pop up or happen to us that it's hard to truly recognize that most things that happen are road maps for learning. I remember a story my mother told me about the pure meaning of thanksgiving. My great grandmother was born in 1896 in Prussia which is now the Czech Republic. When she was 6 or so years old she traveled by ship to Ellis Island. This was a trying journey for her and her small family. She was faced with tragedy when early on the voyage she lost a little friend overboard from being washed off by a massive wave. Her family didn't have much luxury and very little to call their own. As this is the story of most coming to America at the turn of the century. I imagine she wasn't very unique in that aspect, but one little tidbit she shared was a bit unique and still sticks with me today. One morning she was climbing the stairs to the top deck and she encountered a porter. They shared hellos and then he reached in his pocket and pulled out a beautiful orange and handed it to her. She was amazed at it and immediately felt pure joy and thankfulness for something that she would have never been able to afford or even have available to her. Of all of the trials of coming to America the porter with the orange affected her the most. She knew that the black porter himself probably wasn't able to have an orange himself, for all she knew he could have taken that orange for himself to enjoy or to save it for a special time. She later would go on to have much difficulty in her life where she became blind in one eye in the 20's and then losing her other eye some years later. She also was deaf. She taught my mom so many lessons of self reliance and being joyful in simple things. Growing up each of my siblings received a beautiful plump orange in the bottom of our stocking on Christmas. To be thankful for an orange seems foreign to us as I now have a huge bowl of them on my kitchen table, but when I see those oranges I am grateful for that porter who brought a smile to my great-grandmothers face 113 years ago and gave her a reason to be thankful.

I am Thankful for:

My Son and the miracle of feeling a baby grow in my belly

Restored Truths

Prayer

Family

The ability to feel love and to give it back

Comforts of Home

Flower Gardens

Sleep

I asked Sam what he was thankful for and he said

Wubbzy

Suckers/Candy

Soda

I did manage to ask him if he was thankful for Jesus and he said OH YES, Jesus Yeah! and shook his head.

There is hope!