Growingup, the Lin family Thanksgiving tradition was simple: my brother and I playing football with church youth group friends, buying last-minute groceries, assisting mom and dad with cooking and cleaning, and then heading to the potluck dinner at our Taiwanese Church. The dinner always included one small symbolic turkey along with 99 other delicious Chinese dishes.
We give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, not just when times are good, when there is fruitfulness on campus, not only when project deadlines or Urbana milestones are hit, not only when the bell rings with another major donor gift or when my 60-year old father gets a clean bill of health, but even when circumstances are not so positive.
We are to give thanks even after my chapter plant goes down or a critical magazine article goes viral, even when project deadlines are missed, or when ministry partner appointments go badly, or my 60-year old mother gets diagnosed with a chronic disease. What does it mean to give thanks in all circumstances?
How can we better apply the discipline of giving thanks? How can we give thanks in ALL circumstances? Is there a difficult area of life to give thanks? Ask God how He would have you express your thanks in a different way this Thanksgiving.
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Amy Tan was born in the United States to immigrant Chinese parents. She wrote The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter and other best-selling books. Tan is literary editor for West magazine and plays in the band the Rock Bottom Remainders. Pat Boyd Photography hide caption
I didn't used to believe in ghosts, but I was trained to talk to them. My mother reminded me many times that I had the gift. It all stemmed from a lie I told when I was 4. The way my mother remembered it, I refused to get ready for bed one night, claiming there was a ghost in the bathroom. She was delighted to learn I was a spirit medium.
When I was 14, my older brother was stricken with a brain tumor. My mother begged me to ask my grandmother to save him. When he died, she asked me to talk to him as well. "I don't know how," I protested. When my father died of a brain tumor six months after my brother, she made me use a Ouija board. She wanted to know if they still loved her. I spelled out the answer I knew she wanted to hear: Yes. Always.
When I became a fiction writer in my 30s, I wrote a story about a woman who killed herself eating too much opium. After my mother read a draft of that story, she had tears in her eyes. Now she had proof: My grandmother had talked to me and told me her true story. How else could I have known my grandmother had not died by accident but with the fury of suicide? She asked me, "She here now?" I answered honestly, "I don't know."
Over the years, I have included other details in my writing I could not possibly have known on my own: a place, a character, a song. I have come to feel differently about my ghostwriters. Sometimes their clues have come so plentifully, they've made me laugh like a child who can't open birthday presents fast enough. I must say thanks, not to blind luck but to my ghosts.
The Thanks extension adds a quick way to give positive feedback for productive contributions to MediaWiki sites.It allows users to send public 'thank you' notifications (via Echo ) to other users for their individual edits and some logged actions.
To thank another user, go to the History tab of any page. Next to each revision will be a 'thank' link. Click the link to send thanks to that user. This link is also available in the diff view, on some entries in Special:Log, and below comments on Flow boards if Flow is installed.
When the thank link is clicked, the recipient will receive a notification with your thanks via the Echo extension (unless they have opted out of receiving thanks notifications). A record of the action is also recorded as a log entry at Special:Log/thanks.
To stop getting thanks notifications, you can opt out from them in your notification preferences.Go to the Notifications tab of your preferences. This only prevents you from getting notified, it does not prevent users from thanking you.
Notice also that the logging table is not selected from directly, but on Wikimedia servers we take advantage of the logging_logindex table.In order to quickly search for all the thanks a user sent the logging_userindex provides the correct index.
People were quick to help. Near strangers offered us guestrooms and finished basements. A neighbor brought my daughter a stuffed animal to hold. My new coworkers showed up with lunch, and old friends sent gift cards. At one point, exhausted and spent, I found a laundry basket full of basic toiletries and groceries left on the doorstep of our temporary residence.
The Bible presents gratitude as more than a box to check. It is a posture of worship, an active response to our unchanging God. We cultivate thanksgiving in our lives when we take time to notice who God is, what He has done, and what He continues to do. We can give Him thanks in every season of life because His character is steadfast.
I praise the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, my merciful loving and HOLY God, for everything. Every breathe, every moment with Him, as I walk out this life on earth which He has given to me, following Jesus, is a sweet blessing. What a blessing to be found in Him. What a faithful God we serve.
Hi Isabelle, me too! At the time it felt cruel and hard, sore and unfair to have a relationship end and just shards in my hands but it did the same-robbed me of confidence in God and the faith I had in who He is and had been to me. I praise Him for knowing everything and loving me too much to leave me behind!
I am thankful that God spared the life of my grandson and after an extended stay in NICU he was able to come home with manageable medical issues. I am thankful that he and my daughter and son in law will soon be moving close to us.
I am thankful for Jesus being the cornerstone! He shifted the direction of our family and I now belong in His bloodline. All generational curses are broken and I get to live in the fruit of freedom that He paid the price for!
The Lord has blessed me immensely, even though I have not been steadfast in his word. I am feeling especially thankful for my recent deliverance and conviction. God is so good! May we bless others with his word this season.
God thank you for your Love, your Grace, your Tender Mercies, your Discipline, and for the answered and not answered prayers thank you for all that you do but over all thank you for giving your Son to die for my sins, my trespasses and my disobedience. I am grateful and thankful for serving and being your child. Love Daddy
I am challenged by the thought of how to pass this habit of gratitude to the next generation. Our family has endured divorce alongside the death of my mom and now that we are a few years removed from the acute stress of that, we are also less-intentional to look for the good.
I am grateful that I found this wonderful resource for Thanksgiving and learning how to thank God IN all things not for all things. I have had a very difficult 6 yes physically and the enemy it trying his best to tear me down with my marriage and my health. This is the 1st I have heard of SRT series of studies of the Bible. I think God was leading me to this because he has seen my struggles.
Been spending more time with God in prayer, because I know that is where he is the nearest to me. My throat too has been closed of thanksgiving.
Paid studies is an offering that I get back in. Will pray for the outpouring of this blessing for this community
So thankful for this community! Thankful and praising God for His goodness as my husband and I are currently expecting our first child. However, I am in the first trimester and finding it so hard to not notice every little cramp, nausea, and symptom and not be fearful for the baby. Praying for safety for this child, yes, but praying that God uses this pregnancy as a way to remind me that it is He who is ultimately in control of all things- His will is holy and right. Prayers to loosen my fist and give it all up to God, who has it all already.
Heather Schmudlach that makes so much sense. I have felt that way often. I will pray for you. I am so thankful for this study. I need it desperately, I have been struggling for a few months now. Currently I am asking for prayer for our heater, it seems to turn off at night when the cold is the worst and I get the worried about our baby.
Girl same! Just got married, also a teacher, also burnt out. God is so so good. Even in the busyness, He is teaching me to be patient and to listen to His voice for what He is calling me to do next. Praying for you, your kiddos, and your future spouse!!
I am excited for this study. It is very much needed. I am struggling with not being content with my job and our house. I need a new and fresh perspective in the great things I already have. Does that make sense? Does anyone have these issues?
Oh Hope, I do pray for you, your family and your dad. I pray for healing for your dad, strength and peace for your family and for the healthcare team as they make so many decisions in the care of your dad. I pray for miracles in rehab.
Thankful for the season I am walking into and the new chapter being written. I am thankful for friends and colleagues, family and church members. I am Thankful for Pastors and this amazing Florida weather!
So excited for this study. In a time of depression, God spoke to me to write down through my life where he had supernaturally met a need. I started writing with getting 10 things down. Well, I filled page after page of ways that it had to be only God! I b know write down three things everyday that i am thankful for that day. Once you start it is hard to stop.
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