gratitude

Thankful I’m not a turkey

November 24, 2020 By Barbara 1 Comment

Turkeys, in my opinion, are one of the ugliest birds around. I mean, what in the world? Just look at the poor thing. It looks like it has some kind of cancer growing all over its head and face. Sure, it has a beautiful tail span and amazing ability to stop traffic with a hiss and a gobble, but… You have to admit, the creature would make a remarkable addition to any list of Star Wars aliens.

Despite being ugly and the number one choice of hunters for Thanksgiving Day dinner, the Turkey has become a symbol of American history. The wild turkey, native to America, or Meleagris Gallepavo as some of us turkey experts like to call them, were running free in the woods, eating up bugs and other tidbits, sleeping in trees, and losing feathers as they went for many years before someone thought to lock them up in pens and force-feed them until they were nice and plump for our discerning palates.

When I was a child in grade school, we learned about the first Thanksgiving. The pilgrims and Native Americans sharing food and information, being neighborly and thankful for everything God had supplied them with in this blessed and abundant country. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have running water, electric ovens, dish washers, or televisions, but they made do with what they had and were very grateful.

They shared the work, the food, and the after-dinner entertainment.

I don’t know if there are still public schools that talk about the importance of thankfulness or if they just dwell on indoctrinating children in the art of navel gazing, but Americans do have a lot to be thankful for. Regardless of our recent bout of divisive rhetoric in the news, rioting in the streets, and shortage of neighborly love these days, God has blessed this country with an abundance of good things.

There’s a rumor that Ben Franklin called Thomas Jefferson a “Tom Turkey” when Franklin opposed the idea of declaring the turkey as our nation’s national bird. I always liked to read about Ben Franklin and was quite impressed by his total lack of common sense when he decided to fly a key on a kite during a lightning storm. But I have to admit, the Eagle is a much more regal bird for our nation’s icon. Sorry, turkeys.

Around 90% of homes (over 45 million) in the U.S. eat turkey for Thanksgiving Day celebrations. That’s a lot of drumsticks to go around.

Whether you are a turkey lover or not, I hope you will remember that the very name of this holiday explains what it’s all about. Giving Thanks.

I’m thankful for all of you. To show my appreciation for your continued readership, I am giving away Christmas in Port Scuttlebutt thru the end of November. You can pick up your copy at any online bookstore. Just click here> Christmas in Port Scuttlebutt

Also, don’t forget that A Man Can Die but Once is available December 1st! PreOrder your copy now and be the first to read the new Double Barrel Mystery.

*Leave a comment and share one of the traditions, foods, or activities you and your family enjoy at Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Barbara is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels, the Double Barrel Mysteries, the Second Chances series, and more. She lives in Minnesota because she can’t afford Hawaii.

Color in the lines!

September 1, 2016 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Review: Gratitude (A prayer and Praise Coloring Journal)

When stores first started selling “adult coloring books” I was a bit skeptical. But I love this gratitude prayer and praise coloring journal! I haven’t really sat down to color since my kids were small, but this book is so colorful and attractive that I easily fell into the pages with eagerness. It’s compact enough to carry with you to the coffee shop and a bright and artistic addition to your devotionals.

There is a paragraph of prayer and praise to the Lord on each day’s entry as well as a section for writing your own thoughts or thankfulness. Some pages have pictures to color in and allow you to be a bit artistic yourself. For someone like me, the pictures and artwork are a definite bonus to help think on the topic at hand and/or meditate on the corresponding verses provided with each section.

You might be interested in the links below:

Tyndale’s Inspire Creativity board on Pinterest has downloadable samplers and sharable coloring pages from our coloring and Bible journaling line, the Living Expressions Collection!

Check out www.livingexpressionscollection.com for the latest news and information on our coloring and journaling products.

You can purchase your own copy at Amazon, Christianbook.com, or Tyndale.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale in exchange for an honest review.

The soggy bottom of our discontent

June 22, 2013 By Barbara 8 Comments

Storms are raging in the soggy Minneapolis area. Lightening, thunder, wind and rain have filled my days and nights with a pounding usually attributed only to heavy metal music. We’ve had so much rain that birds are finding it hard to fly, the weight of water sodden upon their wings. Frogs refuse to croak for fear of drowning and the only things happy about this muggy, rainforest marsh are the extra-large, doubly poisonous mosquitoes that have bred like rabbits on Viagra.

Yes, I know some folks are crying about a drought. Not in my yard, but outside the ‘burbs there must be hot, dry, sandy ground and rocky hills with lizards that scoot along, their tongues wagging in the hot breeze. According to the news, large patches of land have yet to see the dark side of a cloud or feel the sting of pelting rain. They are living in a parched and weary land where there is no water.

Isn’t it amazing how people can turn whatever circumstance they are going through and make it the worst scenario ever? It’s not just that we love to exaggerate, but that we are never quite content with what we have.

Humans are born complainers.

We gripe that a baker’s dozen is only thirteen instead of fourteen. We worry about our newest wrinkle when God gives us a healthy, long life. We want things we don’t need just to get them and toss them aside for a newer model.

Discontent.

I suffer with this malady quite frequently.

Even with all I have, the blessings of life, health, a free country, loving family and caring friends, I can turn a seemingly sunny day into a chapter of Ecclesiastes. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” I don’t know if it’s a gift exactly, but I’m pretty good at it.

The thing is, I don’t want to live in discontent like that. I don’t want to live as though I have no hope, because I do. I have Christ and he is the meaning of everything. He doesn’t leave us hopeless, storm-tossed, or forgotten. He gave his life that we might live abundantly. Hopeful. Loved. With peace that surpasses all understanding.

The world around us seems to be awash in self-importance, self-gratification, and self-indulgence. I often fall into this trap myself. It’s easy to think more of myself than others. To want and grasp and cling. I set myself up as a little god and want all of my desires met immediately or I’m unhappy, unfulfilled, unloving.

Discontent.

It can steal our joy. It can snuff our hope. It can make us go through life as though our glass is always half empty. When in fact, there is so much more.

Thankfulness. Thankfulness is the anti-venin of discontent.

Billy Graham wrote on the importance of thankfulness: “Nothing turns us into bitter, selfish, dissatisfied people more quickly than an ungrateful heart. And nothing will do more to restore contentment and the joy of our salvation than a true spirit of thankfulness.”

I’ve found that to be true in my own life. If I live with a spirit of thankfulness, I am content with what I have and who I am, but when I let ungratefulness slither into my heart, my contentment is eroded and I’m back to viewing life like a child standing at the foot of a tree fort and the ladder has been yanked up just out of reach.

In Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts, she tells about recording all the things she is thankful for each day. Simple things like soap bubbles in the sink or rough whiskers on her husband’s cheeks; all get recorded in her journal of eucharisteo (or thankfulness).

She writes, “This pen. This is nothing less than the driving of nails. Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo. I’m hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart. It starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it’s been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent. Because that habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pen of gratitude. I hammer.”

The Bible talks about thankfulness or giving thanks over forty different times. So if God wants us to be thankful I guess there must be something to it. After all, he created us in His image and our purpose is to glorify God by reflecting Christ.

1 Chronicles 16:34 says, Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

So when the thunderstorms come again – and they will – I choose to be thankful for:

1. Petals wet and glistening in the morning sun