I have much to be thankful for... by Tony C

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours! May we never take for granted the many, many blessings that come from a loving Father.

Everyday should really be Sunday...or vise versa.

Being the anchor on the Kingdom Bloggers relay is a tough job...


What a great week of post! I'm so glad to see Stephaniee Ruth in the Wednesday slot and look forward to her sharing thoughts each week.


I'm also glad my friend David is home resting after a medical scare this week. He poured his heart, as usual, into Monday's post and maybe a little too much. Okay. That's not what actually happened, but I'm thankful he is on the mend after a viral infection made it to his ticker. If you know David at all, you also know he has a great (and strong) heart and love for Jesus. Please keep him in your prayers.


By now, you may be growing tired of my repetitive use of the love theme. Fact of the matter is that as a Christian following the Word of God, I don't see any other way around the commandments to love God and my neighbors. Jesus didn't really place an addendum when He spoke those words as to when or when not to (or if there even are exceptions), so I try to keep at a bare minimum at least those two biblical principles in focus each and every day.

Yes. Some people make it very difficult, but then again, God could say the very same thing about me.

Too often we mistake love and mushy (or even soft) as synonymous. I personally think kind is a much better fit in both the noun and verb form. Of course, true is recognized as an acceptable synonym in most all languages which is an interesting fact when put in the context of the Bible. God is love. Without love in our heart, we cannot know God. We are commanded to love one another by God, who so loved us He chooses to pardon our transgressions against Him through Jesus. If I don't love...I don't get to be with my Father.

That's about all you basically need to know about this thing we call being a Christian...truly. The hardest part is living with that in the forefront of your mind, in everything you do...every single day.

You don't have to be a missionary, Sunday School teacher, famous author, Christian musician or church deacon to be an effective life for God. Just love. Show kindness. Patience. Empathy. Encourage. Show those acts to others then add a God bless you or better yet share the fact that you do these things because God does them for you, and it's just your way of honoring Him. Do them daily...at every opportunity.

There will be a lot a people with us in Heaven because they found Jesus reflected in the small acts of another. I can't think of any other better way to spend my day than doing the small things for His glory.

What's your heart full of?

Since Valentine’s Day was this week, we’re celebrating Love in general, and our spouses in specific, here at Kingdom Bloggers this week.

My husband John and I wed in July 2005. This wasn’t either of our’s first marriage and we’d both been single for quite a while. We were both grateful to God to have found one another.

I’d been dating quite a bit the couple of years before I met John and was basically burned out on the whole process. I’d found to my great disappointment that even people who said that they were Christians did not necessarily live by Christian values. So you can imagine my great delight (even if I was a bit uncomfortable) when on our third date John turned to me and looked me straight in the eyes and proclaimed “I don’t believe in having sex outside of marriage. Do you?”

John was a breath of fresh air in a world where it seemed everyone was pretending that doing things their own way was OK, and that God didn’t really mean what He said in the Bible. I appreciated a man who not only lived out His faith, but who also made himself accountable to stay true to what he believed.

The fact that we both have the same faith has made all the difference in the world to our relationship.

Getting married when one is older brings with it a whole set of challenges. John has likened our relationship to the merging of two great and mighty rivers; of course there is upset/friction when they come together. Since we’d both lived many years prior to our coming together, each had a few children (he 6 and me 3), and both had careers, we were fully developed people (rivers vrs streams) and our merger has sometimes created big crashs/splashs.

But we both love God and want His will more than anything else. We both pray. God has been so good and so faithful to open each of our eyes over the past few years to new ways of thinking and doing things. John says that he thinks marriage is great because it helps you become less selfish. He says that he thinks it’s easy when you’re single and are doing everything your own way to think you’re so spiritually mature, but then you enter into a relationship and no longer live just for yourself, then you find out how mature you really aren’t.

Another phrase of John’s that I appreciate is that he says that we’ve just got to give each other a lot of grace, just like Jesus gives us.

I feel so grateful to God for John. This man really loves me. This past Saturday, we were celebrating Valentine’s day early since Monday would be a work day. During the course of our time together John referred to that Bible verse from Ephesians 3:20 that talks about how God can do more for us than we could even imagine, than our wildest dreams. John talked about how grateful he is for our wonderful home in the mountains, and for getting to have me for a wife. It blows my mind that he actually sees me as such a great thing!

So during this Valentine’s celebration I have a heart of thanksgiving for this man with whom God has blessed me.

What about you, what's your heart full of at Valentine's Day?

Above everything else, I am most thankful for...

On this weekend end of Thanksgiving, there is so much to recognize and appreciate, and my fellow Kingdom Bloggers have done a typically wonderful job...but I can safely say our focus always returns to the most spectacular.

The United States is the first country in the world to officially set aside a national holiday to give thanks. The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was given by the Continental Congress in 1777:

FOR AS MUCH as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for SOLEMN THANKSGIVING and PRAISE: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth "in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.

The Thanksgiving we celebrate today started during the Civil War by declaration of President Lincoln, and again the purpose was for a nation to join together and thank God Almighty for His many blessings. I encourage you to read the eloquent language of said proclamation here.

One Nation, under God...

We all know God is so much bigger than a single nation, although I am most thankful for my country and its once committed acknowledgement of the Almighty . But what my thoughts constantly revert to when I think of giving thanks goes far beyond a nation, a race or any other physical property we know or have known. My thanks are ultimately for a gift...the gift.

God put into motion a plan of salvation long before men understood the concept of banding together to form nations and governments. A gift of mercy for His creation gone rogue all because He loved us enough to give us choice. A Holy pardon for all we could ever do or would ever do against His will. I don't understand that gift, and I surely don't deserve it.

Yet...there salvation is for the taking. Eternity with our Creator, in His presence, in His glory.

No, I don't begin to comprehend it...but I sure am most thankful...above all else.

Giving Thanks Isn't Always Easy

Why is giving thanks so hard?  I know it is a nice and wonderful thing to do.  I used to be an optimist. I used to believe ultimately everything would be wonderful.  The truth is, I'm no longer an optimist.  When I think about gratitude and thanksgiving, unfortunately all the things that have hurt me, trouble me, pain me, disappointment me etc come to mind.  I can very easily wallow in a sea of self-doubt and depression.

But that's the problem.  It isn't about me... Thanksgiving isn't about ME.  When I make it about me, I lose sight of what's really important.  The comparisons I make are always those with people who have done better or the things I don't have.

I have some friends who I've known a very, very long time.  Some are merely acquaintances, a few others are good friends.  I guess I've been pretty hard on myself all my life.  Always wanting to please and always some how falling short.  I remember that I always thought these people were better than I was... they just were.  I got that from my mother who would fall all over herself for anyone she perceived as better than her.  I think she got that as a child being poor, living on the wrong side of the tracks, being Pentecostal when it wasn't cool to be so, and then going to NYC as a child to work as a domestic.  I didn't grow up in luxury by any means.  The daughter of a janitor isn't born to wealth.  But I never went without something I really needed.

Those Norman Rockwell pictures of Thanksgiving are really not the reality for many people. For many people the holiday is empty.  Oh they may not be alone, they maybe in the midst of celebration, but they are empty.  Psychologists will tell you that depression and suicide both rise when we are supposed to be giving thanks and being with family.

Okay, I'm not trying to depress you nor am I trying to slap you with reality.  I am just thinking out loud about how complicated life is, especially at the holidays.

These are my kids and grandkids and one in-law.
I'm thankful for each one of them.

We have a tradition in my family.  I started it with my family when my kids were very young.  We go around the table and say what we are thankful for before we pray and eat.  Everyone is always awkward. I don't know why.  I am too.  My mother would always cry when she would say her thanks for health, and family.  That's the pretty standard answer in our house.  Health and family....

But you know, this thanksgiving I'm thinking how huge that really is... we lost my mother this year.  She's not crying any more about anything - she's with Jesus.  Health - I have friends in chronic pain and some with cancer.  I am healthy, thank God... Really, that's doesn't just sound nice as you go around the table.  It's really something to be thankful for...

Then there is family.  My family is big and just as complex as it is big.  It's a typical family because it is blended.  We have mine and ours... I wish we were closer in proximity as well as emotionally.  I wish those who didn't care for each other would learn to love and forgive.  Yet, this amazing tribe of people are wonderful.  Some are professionals, some work with their hands.  Some are young, some not so young any more.  Some are just finding themselves, some seem to have arrived.  But they are great - and I'm very thankful for each of them.  And I'm thankful for that complex woman who made me call her Mother rather than Mommy - the one who always tried to live up to someone else's expectation but who made the best turkey at Thanksgiving and even borrowed tips from Better Homes & Garden's to make our simple table look grand.

But most of all I'm thankful for the godly heritage she and my dad gave me.  They taught me about Jesus.  I used to sing a song in church as a kid - I have decided to follow Jesus -- there's one verse that says, Though none go with me, still I will follow.  Seems hardly anyone is following Jesus in my family.  But I am.  And I will continue to follow the One who is my source of strength and life.  And today, I am most thankful for Him.

Happy Thanksgiving - and as you sit to consume massive amounts of food, if it isn't your tradition to share what your thankful for with your family - tell Jesus what your thankful for before that first bite goes in your mouth.  Your food will taste even better... GUARANTEED.

La Cabeza de Calabaza

It's Thanksgiving week, and that's what we'll be writing about this week on Kingdom Bloggers. BTW - Happy First Anniversary fellow bloggers!

I am thankful for lots to things: I have a good job, a nearly new car, a house or two, a great church, a growing guitar collection, food, money in the bank and my health seems OK - I guess for my age it is actually good.  I really am grateful. And when I think about it, I am almost happy with my spiritual life.

If you follow me here or on Fire and Grace, you know that I have a 7-year-old named Charlotte. I enjoy all my kids, but Charlotte and I spend the most time together.

And of course my wife Mary Anne, is my favorite person in the entire world.

I was thinking about all of this, but Charlotte is such a big part of my life, I'd like talk about her. She has a lot of qualities, but an old friend said it best, "Charlotte is like Mary Anne on the outside, and David on the inside." To know her is to know me, to see her is to see Mary Anne.

The family dynamics go something like this:

I was sitting with my them at a local Mexican restaurant for my wife's birthday. Here is the conversation that took place between me and two of my daughters.

22-Year-Old: I am joining the gym.

David: Why?

22-Year-Old: Well, when I go out running in the neighborhood, I get home and hear gunshots around the corner (a few months ago, they were in front of the house, that last time there were in the neighborhood).

David: Get a gun.

22-Year-Old: Yeah, right. I'll just shove one in my running shorts.

6-Year-Old: Don't do that, you'll shoot your privates off.

So much for advancing the dialog for safe and legal gun ownership.

Today "Missy" and I had a date day. She ran out to greet me after church in her bare-feet (was 39 degrees). I took her to the playground, out for fries at "King Burger." Then we came home to do a Playdough project and play with her new Zuzu Pets; which she received for her birthday. It was a fun time. Contrast that to yesterday where I was working, had a recording studio session, and dropped in on her party at a local gym.

She's an animal lover, enjoys Tom & Jerry, tells it like it is, creative and artistic, and well like I said, her attitude is little strong.

We have enrolled her in a bilingual school, and she is pretty much fluent in Spanish. My new nickname for her is La Cabeza de Calabaza (Pumpkin Head). It makes her smile, and it certainly describes the red hair!