We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that your name is near. (Psalm 75:1)
I remember when Thanksgiving was a big deal. Today you do not have time to celebrate it before you have to get out of the way for the Christmas rush.
It’s a crying shame, but we’ve allowed Thanksgiving to be swallowed up by the commercialization of Christmas. Well I’ve decided that I’m going to marshal a little assault on a much too early Christmas season and celebrate Thanksgiving with you today, even if I am a few days early. So drop your packages, put your credit cards up, and shove the wrapping paper back under the bed. I’m going to give you a Thanksgiving testimony and if you look hard enough, you might see some things for which you are thankful, too.
Many of us take our marriages for granted. It’s easy to find that niche in a marriage where you don’t have to say, “I love you”, or “thank you”. It’s not that the things we do for each other don’t matter. We just seem to get so comfortable with the routine of marriage that we fail to notice the small things that make the real differences in our lives.
I kidded my wife the other day that she was a “Proverbs 31 Woman”. “It’s true, honey,” I told her. “Why you could eat off our floors…. Macaroni and cheese, cereal, you name it. It’s all probably down there.”
Well the joke was on me because when I had the time and actually read Proverbs 31 again, I saw a lot of my wife’s qualities described in those verses: Trustworthy, wise, strong, virtuous, caring, loving. She has them all. And when I read the verse, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her,” I said to myself, “Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with her.”
Don’t think for a minute that our marriage is perfect. It isn’t. We occasionally disappoint each other and we periodically argue. That’s all a part of being married. But I refuse to allow the disappointments and arguments to stand in the way and blind me from all the things, big and small, that she does for our family and me.
I am also thankful that at how God continues to teach us – to apply his Word to the problems that surface in our marriage. The other night we had an argument and went to bed angry. That’s a biblical no-no and we paid the price for ignoring it. When we finally made up, we talked about it and promised each other that we would never again “let the sun go down” while we were still angry. (Ephesians 4:26)
The great thing about being married to a Christian is that my wife is not all that unusual. All of us who have Christian wives and husbands have seen the very same qualities that I just described in my wife. So take a moment this week, before the Christmas rush arrives, and think about all of the small ways that your husband or wife shows just how much they unconditionally love you. Tell him or her how much they mean to you. Remind each other how important it is to apply God’s Word in your marriage. And when you go to bed tonight, put your arms around each other, say a prayer together, and thank God that you can celebrate Thanksgiving every day of the year.
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