Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How are you doing? Things are going good at the Jones
household. I am currently in Dublin, GA
heading to Kansas. I am currently
showing that I will be in Kansas Thursday morning. I am low on my 70 hour clock so I can’t drive
too many hours. After lots of delays,
Micah finally got his leg braces and will be getting his wheel chair. We have
also found good therapists to help him with communications and with his fine
motor skills. It has taken us a long time but we are very blessed. God has given Paula lots of knowledge to help
Micah while we were without any help. We
have found out during this time that while there is lots of information and
help for children with Asperger's , there is almost nothing for those who have
classic Autism. We are asking God to
help us help others that are having this same problem. I am seeing that God is doing some amazing
things through Paula. She has been
writing a book on our experience and it is really turning out great.
It is Thanksgiving week.
Lots of people are busy either traveling to family’s house or getting
things ready for a huge meal.
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I love the traditional Thanksgiving meal and
relaxing with family. It is also an
annual reminder that we should be thankful.
It is a time for us to reflect on all that we have been blessed with and
to give thanks for those blessings. I
see a number of my friends on Facebook list things that they are thankful for
during the month of November and I love reading them. But I notice something. They only list the things that are good to
them. It is easy to be thankful for the
things that we like but how about the trials?
How about those days when nothing goes as we like, are you thankful for
those days? Should we be thankful when
we lose our jobs? How about when we miss
the bus or when someone does us wrong?
Should we be thankful for these things?
I know, “That is easier said than done.”
I can’t agree with you more. But
I also know that when God tells us that we should do something, it means it
isn't impossible for us to do. It means
that we need to lean on Him to be able to do it. There are lots of verses that tell us that we
must be thankful IN ALL THINGS. This
means both good and bad. The reason is
because God is in control of all things.
He is Sovereign and He loves us.
He tells us that ALL things are for good and we must have faith that He
is telling us the truth. Do you believe
that God is Sovereign? Do you believe
that God loves you? Do you really
believe it? One of the problems we have
as humans is that we THINK we know what is good for us. We also forget that God uses us to help
others and sometimes that requires us to sacrifice our self for the good of
others. A very popular example is
patience. Did you know that God requires
us to have patience? This is a very hard
thing for many of us and we need God to help us get patience. Guess what that means? We must go through trials to help us get
patience and those trials will not feel good to us. How about if a neighbor needs his or her
self-esteem to be boosted? God may allow
you to go through some real tough times and lead someone to you who can help
you. This can actually accomplish two
things because God may also see that you need to be humbled. Many times people will be blessed with lots
of good things and then end up running into lots of hard times. This is because when things are going good,
we tend to forget God and we start boasting about OUR achievements. We need to be humbled every once in a while.
Most trials we run into though is caused by us.
Should we be thankful for these trials?
I say yes. God could have stopped
the trials but He chose not to and for good reason. The best way to learn a lesson is to suffer
the consequences for our actions. The worst
thing you can do to a child is to eliminate the consequences when they do
something wrong. God loves us, so He
lets us suffer the consequences when we do wrong. Of course, He is with us and helps us through
the trial, but He doesn't take the trial away.
If our mind is in the right place and we are not blaming others for what
we are going through, we will come out of the trial saying, “Wow! That didn't
work out. I won’t do that again.” Sadly, this is the hardest trial for us
because human nature gets in the way and we refuse to admit or see that the
trial was our own doing. This causes us
to repeat the thing we did wrong.
Every trial we go through is for good and we should be
thankful for them. This Thanksgiving,
think of the trials you have gone through and thank God for them. Then, make a promise that from now on, you
will thank God every time you go through a trial and that you will take a good,
honest look at the trial and see the blessing that came out of it. Take care and God Bless.
Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat
References: 1
Thessalonians 5:18, Psalm 107:1, Ephesians 5:20, Colossians 3:15-17, James
1:17, Philippians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 9:15, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 105:1, Colossians
4:2, Psalm 118:1-18, Psalm 20:4, Psalm 30:12, Romans 1:21, Psalm 100:1-5, Psalm
23:1-6, Isaiah 12:4-5, Philemon 1:4, Psalm 9:1-2, Psalm 95:2, John 14:1, 1
Chronicles 29:13
