Thanksgiving Day and Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.

Yesterday afternoon I got the stuffing most of the way done. Now all I have to do in the morning is combine the toasted bread cubes with the sautéed onion, celery, spices and apple (I’m trying apple this time instead of adding a lot of other things. I got the idea from my Mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook.). Then I'll add the chicken broth and put it in the bird. Yes, we cook our stuffing inside the turkey. It's so much tastier that way. Don't worry we're careful. And we've never gotten food poisoning from it. I figure my Mom cooked it that way when I was a kid and we all survived. 

Anyway, today I hope to make the desert. I am tossing up whether to make peach cobbler and pumpkin pie or just the cobbler. I don't think I have energy for both. I have to make everything from scratch because of my dietary restrictions (gluten, dairy, tree nut and coconut free). I'm also having foot pain and a fibromyalgia flare and sinus headache and congestion from--hopefully-- just allergies. And after spending so much time on my feet yesterday I need to pace myself today. My foot is still recovering from when I (re)injured it during our last few days in Tasmania. (I'll try to cover that next time) 

So basically, I feel like a mess. 

Yesterday I picked up an old journal of mine from 2010. At the top of the first page, dated Sept 17, was Psalm 50:23, "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." It seemed apropos given Thanksgiving is this week.

In the journal entry I wrote, "I have not felt very thankful about these problems [family crisis, care-giver stress and dental problems]. But I have some of the time tried to give thanks for stuff anyway. I like to think that sacrificing thank offerings is like that. It's easy to give thanks when everything is great. But when stuff is hard it's hard. It costs something emotionally and mentally.....Maybe that's why God gave that promise..."

I just now looked at the previous journal to get more context and was amazed by how much it illustrated the truth of the promise that giving thanks even in hard times can help. Two days before this entry I got an infected tooth extracted. This is what I said about it:

“Today I climbed ‘my Mt Everest’” Got my tooth pulled with just local anesthetic (& a little nitrous oxide for good measure.)

The Guide Post’s devotional for today talked about how the people in our life can help us do difficult things. The verse was ‘two are better than one.’ The author told how his neighbors helped him keep going on his morning run even up the hill that always seemed too hard.

I thought of that today as I waited to get the tooth pulled. Thought of my friends who had gotten teeth pulled with just local and lived to tell about it.

I thought of RC and S and R’s mom and T and J. I didn’t like hearing some of what they said about it Monday night at small group but it helped to think about it—their courage and survival 😉

So, I survived too. Thank you, God. It also helped that the Dr’s office staff played KLTY [Christian station]. One of the songs was really encouraging. I don’t know the name, but some of the words are ‘Jesus Messiah, name above all names, rescue for sinners, Emanuel…’ 

It also helped to think of Jesus going to the cross, and enduring the agony. 

I was struggling with anger with God and how hard stuff has been for me lately. Started to sink into self-pity, but God helped me turn it around by thinking about Jesus – he had it way harder than I did and also remembering my friends who have gone through the hard thing of losing a tooth or two. 

Then too I chose to remind myself and declare God’s goodness and to thank him for stuff – like Novocain, and friends to give me rides, and a Christian doctor who plays Christian music. And that helped.

I did feel an amazing amount of peace while I waited for them to get info from my insurance company. It was like John prayed—God was my valium!

It also helped to keep reminding myself that I would be rid of all that infection. Like how Jesus endured [the cross] for the joy set before Him.”

I know, I know I’m a wimp to have been so worried about a tooth extraction. Lots of my friends have endured worse! Since then, I have lost two more teeth and it was not fun those times either (and I got more than novocaine!). But the point is that thankfulness and trusting in God even when it is hard really can help. 

Just to clarify: At the time of those journal entries we were in crisis mode. In addition to my major tooth pain and problems we were caring for my Mom who had just moved in with us and had a lot of care needs. Caring for her complex issues was really wearing me down. She was so unwell that we didn’t expect her to live much longer. 

It is now 13 years later and she is still living, though not with us. She needs more care (and lifting) than we can cope with so she lives in an assisted living home. We will visit her tomorrow. 

God has brought me through so much and I know he will continue to be with me no matter what. I am thankful.