Great Friends, Yummy Food, and Deep Thoughts

I just got home from the annual harvest dinner at our church, FBC Woodway. It is probably the biggest of all Baptist potlucks. All the ladies bring their best homemade Thanksgiving plates. With friends, we all eat the abundance of food and enjoy an evening sharing what we are thankful for. While driving home, I was thinking about how nice it is to hear people thanking God for what He has done in the past year. I have been thinking about how this period of my life is so sweet and special (and fleeting), and I have felt especially thankful for the joys of motherhood. Then I was thinking is it wrong to praise God for the specific tangible gifts in my life? Should I praise Him more for who He is than for what He gives me? I guess my conclusion was that of course I should thank God for the gifts He gives me! I will definitely want Caleb to thank me for presents he will receive in the future. However, I should make thanksgiving and praise a habit of my life, so that I can know God and praise Him for who He is at all times- even hard times. So I will just say, thanks Lord for the great season of life that our family is in now, and help me to praise you through all seasons of life. It reminds me of the Matt Redmond song:

Blessed Be Your Name

Blessed Be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

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May we bless the name of the Lord daily!  Let this
Thanksgiving week remind us that God is worthy of our praise
because of the very nature of who He is.  I feel gratitude and
give praise to the Lord for what He has done for me, but I de-
sire to worship simply because God is so worthy of my praise.