Book Time: “Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember”

Here’s another recommendation that is a great resource for Thanksgiving.  This book, Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember, was given to us when our son was born.  Last year I couldn’t find it after the move, and this year my almost-four-years-old daughter is just beginning to understand the rudimentary concept of a holiday for thankfulness.  As I have explored this book with her, I am so excited to share the heritage of the Pilgrims and the true story of God’s providence in that epic adventure.  I can see this book being used year after year for many annual remembrances.

One fantastic feature of the book is the way it is organized.  There are two sizes of fonts, and the larger font is the “abridged” version for smaller children or to fit a shorter time frame.  Reading both sets of fonts gives the expanded story, and additionally there are sidebar articles to further deepen the information.

And the book is beautiful!  I keep mine displayed on our mantle, and the outside is just a glimpse of how lovely the inside is as well.

Another unexpected bonus is the music CD which is included.  I listened to it for the first time this month, and was delighted by this stately set of piano renditions of Thanksgiving, harvest, and praise hymns and songs.  It has been played many times since and will no doubt accompany the festive food preparations this Thursday.

Thanksgiving truly is a time to give thanks, and as Christians we are so blessed to have an object, a recipient, of our Thankfulness: God Almighty.  Bless His holy name!  I hope you can add this book to your collection and enjoy the tangible way of focusing on this quickly-being-eclipsed holiday.

All For Jesus

Jesus, all for Jesus,
    All I am and have and ever hope to be.
    Jesus, all for Jesus,
    All I am and have and ever hope to be.

    All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
    I surrender these into Your hands.
    All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
    I surrender these into Your hands.

Do you know this song?  We were singing it at church one night, a sweet moment of Christians joining our voices in true worship to our God.  They were big words I was singing, but words I truly meant. 

Within days, as I was reading a book on motherhood, I came to the chapter titled “The Servant Mother.”  The author relates the details of a busy day, driving home in the late afternoon and hoping for fifteen minutes of down time before starting dinner.  A phone call from her teen daughter came about how to open the gas tank.  Another phone call from the same daughter about a movie she was excited about.  Her son asked her to come take a picture of him for his website.  Since nothing is simple, she wound up moving a huge piece of furniture to plug in the camera with the dead battery so she could take the picture.  Then her youngest daughter called her urgently to her bedroom so that she could show her the new way she had arranged her stuffed animals.  And it went on and on.

So many days, I feel my life is just like that.  I go from one minor incident to another, caring for my kids: untangling the balloons they got at the dentist the day before, changing a diaper, loading the dishwasher, zipping up coats, buckling car seats, sorting out whose turn it is for the red ball, etc. etc.  So I truly appreciated the reminder in this book that God wants us to be servants to our kids by doing the mundane for them.  She says, “Before I had children, I never realized this.  I really had no clue that admiring a Beanie Baby’s pen, taking a picture, finding a T-shirt, and helping to unlock a gas cap would be the kinds of sacrificial acts required of me most often while I attempted to fulfill the mission of motherhood. . . . But it’s the way I respond to my children in everyday moments that gives me the best chance of winning their hearts.”

I smiled at God’s timing in putting this book and this song together in my life at the same time.  For me, it can be so romantic to give God “all of my ambitions, hopes, and plans.”  It is another thing entirely to have my “me time” (a.k.a. afternoon nap time) interrupted by THREE (legitimate!) trips to the bathroom by my daughter, all requiring assistance.  And yet, this is the “living it out” way to make that song happen.  I’ve also noticed it’s not really about the action, either.  I will be helping my son find his shoes one way or the other, but the thing I have a choice about is my attitude.  I can choose to be cheerful, to be a servant, and to give myself willingly; or I can choose to begrudge the time, to be surly or sarcastic or exasperated.  God is pleased, obviously, with the first.  And though no one else is around, my children are watching and they can tell the difference.  “Jesus, all for Jesus.  All I am and have and ever hope to be.”  I pray He keeps me faithful and helps me to do—in the moment—the things I want to do in the sweet times of worship.

“And the King will answer them,

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least

of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”