{"id":762,"date":"2017-11-20T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/thank-you-thank-you-thank-you\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:12:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:12:04","slug":"thank-you-thank-you-thank-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=762","title":{"rendered":"Thank You. Thank You. Thank You."},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’m starting this Thanksgiving week with so much gratitude to God for His love and His many blessings — far more than I could ever deserve! I am not lucky, fortunate, or merely disciplined \u2013 I am the recipient of God\u2019s grace \u2013 His unmerited favor because I am His and He is mine. It’s not enough to just say \u201cThank you!\u201d, but to do something with the grace and blessings I\u2019ve been given. And I know there is a responsibility that comes with privilege. I am blessed to bless. Gifted so I can give and that giving may come as just being a bright light that someone else may need. <\/p>\n

Case in point. While in Tulsa, it was hammer down getting Mom\u2019s things packed up for her move to my sis-in-law, Karen\u2019s home. Mom isn\u2019t moving fast these days, so we realized, neither should we. We\u2019re giving her time and space to make these many easy AND difficult decisions. After all, she has an accumulation of many years of living — 95 to be exact. She needed rest from her decision-making on Saturday morning, so I decided to go visit Karen\u2019s husband\u2019s Mom, Margaret, also 95 years old and who lives in a long care facility here in Tulsa. I was powered up to “make her day”. <\/p>\n

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I drove just a few miles up the road to Inverness Village, her home for many years now, and tiptoed into her room because I could see she was dozing. George and Karen warned me that she has some memory loss now and may not recognize me. I gently tapped her leg and her drowsy eyes opened wide, and the biggest smile appeared on her face as she said, \u201cDonna, you are here. I\u2019m so glad to see you!\u201d She was dressed to the nines, as usual. She was warm and welcoming and I could tell I made her day, but, more importantly, she made mine with the brightness in her eyes and the joy overflowing coming from her. I said, \u201cMargaret, you look beautiful as always, but just look at your hair \u2013 it is so full and long!\u201d With the humor I\u2019ve always known her to have, she said, \u201cI know. It\u2019s because I\u2019m \u2018on the pill\u2019\u201d I laughed so hard and she said, \u201cI love to say that to see people\u2019s reaction. But, seriously, I\u2019m taking a pill that has made my hair come back and it\u2019s thicker than ever!\u201d Then she went on to tell me about how much she loves living at Inverness. “They take such good care of me. The people (nurses, nurse\u2019s aides, etc.) are so helpful and kind. I love the activities — just look at the paintings I’ve done. I just love doing that.” Me: \u201cMargaret, you\u2019ve got your Christmas up already!\u201d Margaret: \u201cOh, no. I keep my Christmas up all year. It makes me happy all year.\u201d She had so much enthusiasm and energy that it made me tear up with gratitude for her gratitude.<\/p>\n

When I lived in Tulsa, I took communion to her on Sundays. I asked if anyone was bringing her communion and she said there is a lovely lady who brings her communion regularly and then she wanted to show me the chapel. “If you\u2019ll push me in the wheel chair, I\u2019ll show you!\u201d So we took a stroll down the hall to see this beautiful little chapel, and as we rolled along, she waved and spoke to everyone we passed. <\/p>\n

After spending about an hour with her, as my typical routine before I would leave, I had prayer with her and as I prayed, I thanked God for this precious bright light that blessed me more than I could have ever blessed her. I thanked God for caring so lovingly for her. I thanked God that her gratitude and heart of Thanksgiving made me even more grateful for my life. <\/p>\n

When it comes to the understanding of the value of gratitude, sometimes it helps to look at the wisdom of others. Margaret has learned to count her blessings \u2013 a wheelchair that carries her to her next activity, a \u201cpill\u201d that\u2019s made her hair grow, the ability to paint some pictures, her home \u2013 be it a room with many family mementos everywhere, her clothes, her children that come to see her, her beautician (she was emphatic about her hair appointment at 1 o\u2019clock). Maybe her simplified life is far from where you and I may be, but oh that we can be as thankful for all that we have in our lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe thankful for what you have; you\u2019ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don\u2019t have, you will never, ever have enough.\u201d \u2013 Oprah Winfrey<\/p>\n

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m starting this Thanksgiving week with so much gratitude to God for His love and His many blessings — far more than I could ever deserve! I am not lucky, fortunate, or merely disciplined \u2013 I am the recipient of God\u2019s grace \u2013 His unmerited favor because I am His and He is mine. It’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[855,837,4378,4379,38,4380,857,858,4381,774,775,302],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-518","tag-blessings","tag-chapel","tag-communion","tag-gratitude","tag-gratitude-to-god","tag-heart-of-thanksgiving","tag-in-everything-give-thanks","tag-inverness-village","tag-thank-you","tag-thanksgiving","tag-tulsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7553,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/7553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}