Day 11 -- Gratitude in the Home

I'm thankful for Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered dried cherries! They are my new Trader Joe's passion. Isn't dark chocolate medicinal? Isn't dark chocolate one of the major good groups? Surely, it is. And, when you combine it with fruit -- well, it must be healthy. (Do they offer 12 step groups for chocoholics?)

What is your food treat of the moment?

I love this verse: For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. I Timothy 4:4 This verse is speaking of foods here. But, all things God created are good. (Yes, in our fallen world, we must deal with sin, evil, God's discipline, God's wrath, natural accidents, and so forth. However, those are the result of the fall and were not part of the world as God originally brought it forth.)

How wonderful God is that everything He creates is useful, beautiful, suitable, beneficial when properly used, meeting a need, and appropriate. Everything that proceeds from Him is good. Don't you love reading about the creation and noticing every time that God pronounces a blessing on what He has made, "And God saw that it was good." When man and woman were created, we were good, because we were created by a good God, in His image.

I also love this description of Jesus in Acts 10:38 -- "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing goood and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

How exciting it is that a woman disciple of Jesus is described in similar terms to her savior, teacher, and lord: In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. Acts 9:36 I don't know how people read the Bible and miss the fact that women play a wonderful role in God's word. What better thing could be said about your life than that you, like Jesus, went about doing good!

Of course, that reminds me of the Proverbs 31 woman, of whom it is said that she does her husband good and not harm all the days of her life. The whole beautiful description of her life is of a woman whose hands were busy performing works that were good -- useful, beautiful, of quality, meeting needs, etc., including reaching out beyond her family to the needy.

What a privilege it is to have opportunities to do good every day of our lives, just as Jesus models for us. We may get weary at times. We may forget why we are doing what we do. We may even get our priorities mixed up and get off track. We may feel under-appreciated, and we may even be misunderstood, persecuted, or, at the very least, overlooked. But, God promises that we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:6). That's something to be thankful for!