You displayed grace (and some of you restraint!) for last Thursday’s post about Chick-fil-A. Whether you agreed or disagreed with me, you kept it dignified. We want everyone to feel welcomed and respected here regardless of their views.
According to their website, BlogHer reaches 40 million women each month. I’m honored, thrilled, and terrified to be published there as a syndicated writer.
Please go to BlogHer to see the post and consider leaving a comment. Whether you agree or disagree the issue at hand, I know you’ll comment with dignity and respect.
Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or since last week, you are an encouragement to me, and I am thankful for you!
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live Him. You’re deeply rooted in Him. You’re well constructed upon Him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7 The Message
Graphique de France creates the most deliciously charming stationery and gifts like the whale notecards featured in this post. Their tag “classic. chic. trendsetting.” is spot-on. Click to visit their Graphique Boutique.
“Thank You for this food,” says my father-in-law when he prays over our family dinner table. “And bless the hands that prepared it.”
Today as I sit down to a simple lunch of tomato soup and tuna melt, I think of the hands that prepared it.
Of course there are the farmers and ranchers. Vegetable growers and harvesters of the tomatoes for the soup and the cucumbers for the relish.
Dairy farmers whose cows produce the milk I stir into my soup and the cheese that makes my tuna melt. Poultry farmers whose chickens lay eggs for the mayo.
produce
Wheat growers who give us grain for bread. Fishermen who harvest albacore on the open seas.
It would be enough to stop there in the bread baskets, victory gardens and teeming waters of our world. But that would only be part of the story.
Equipment, machinery, tires, and fuel run modern farms. Veterinarians and animal health products shield livestock from disease.
Inputs like fertilizer boost plant health and production in our cropland. And yes, there are chemicals to keep our food from being infested by insects, ravaged by disease, or starved out by weeds.
cheese shop
There are ecologists and extension agents to watch over natural resources. Agronomists, biologists, chemists, soil specialists and a host of other scientists to improve and develop technologies.
Bankers, accountants, and lawyers are involved. Marketers too. Farming and food production are expensive ventures.
There are processing companies like the one that canned my soup. Planes, trains and big rigs with 18 wheels to transport the food to my town.
There are farmers’ markets and grocery stores. On-premise butchers, bakers, and chefs. People to work the checkouts, collect carts, or clean up on aisle seven.
checkout
Managers to manage it all. Administrators, human resources professionals, and thousands of other employees, plus federal, state and local government agencies.
So many people, so many hands take part in preparing my food and yours. We are free to buy, cook, or order up nearly anything we can imagine to eat.
Food prices have risen a bit lately. Yet last week I spent more money on clothes for my growing child than on groceries to feed him.
This is the state of food in America. The abundant, affordable state of food.
The pilgrims would fall to their knees if they could see it now. We’d do well to take their lead.
The eyes of all look to You in hope;
You give them their food as they need it.
When You open Your hand,
You satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. Psalm 145:15-16 NLT
A special thank you to the friendly folks at the Richmond Center and Ladue Schnucks grocery stores for lending their smiles to this post.
#foodthanks
This post is part of FoodThanks, a forum sponsored by AgChat where people can give thanks for those who produce our food. To read more perspectives or to link up your own, go to AgChat.com or click on the #foodthanks button here.
For our precious realtor and friend who handled the unexpected sale of our house and quickly secured another place for us to rent. I’m thankful for the blessing of a wise advisor.
running the yard in Kansas
June was only the beginning. It was then we first learned my husband’s employer was being acquired. I’m thankful for his job with the new company.
A new job in a new city. Where just last week, another savvy realtor helped us find another house in a mere 48 hours. One that wasn’t even on the market yet.
What are you thankful for today?
I’d be so thankful if you would share.
July 4, 2011, Cabool, MO
Happy Veterans Day!
Today I’m also thankful for the brave men and women who’ve served in the United States military. Thank you Dad, Uncle Jon, Uncle Bill, Michael B., Joe G., Jeremy N., Cordel H., Eric B., Jeff W., Uncle O., John M., Jeff S., and the many more too numerous to name here. Freedom is not free.
It’s Sunday, and I’m taking the Sabbath off with the fam. Normally wouldn’t post, but figured a note of gratitude would be in keeping with the Spirit of the day.
autumn clematis in the alley
Thank you, Chicago Public Library, for reposting Confessions of a Bibliophile on your Facebook and Twitter feeds this past week. The traffic generated boosted this post into the top 12 for this site (see the list in the right sidebar).
And who could forget when the agricultural community embraced Milk Wars? It was number one until WordPress featured I Like My Bike on Freshly Pressed.
In fact, every post on the top 12 list has one thing in common: each was shared with others by readers who liked what they read here.
This will come as no surprise to the social media savvy. But to those of us who are still learning the ropes, the exponential power of social media is astounding. The term viral is apt.
Like something you see? Share it with others who might like it too. That’s how the community grows.
Speaking of community, heartfelt thanks goes out to Southern Guilford, spread now from coast to coast. Your response to Indian Summer makes me doubly homesick. I’m grateful to have grown up where I did when I did.
So thank you, readers, whoever and wherever you are for reading, commenting and sharing. I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I do.
And most importantly, thank you, God, for Your many blessings to us all, in spite of our failings, each and every day.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend. See you back here soon.
Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all His benefits—
Who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
Who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:2-5 NIV
I Like My Bike won’t be on the front page for long. If it’s gone when you get there, scroll down and hit the Earlier button. Look for the shiny, purple bike.
Thank you for your readership, comments and encouragement. You’re the best!
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 NIV
Is it wrong to thank Jesus I have finally been added to the Sephora mailing list?
Sidebar: For those of you whose mailboxes were also graced with the spring catalog, does François Nars look a lot younger than you expected? In my head I pictured him more like designer Valentino. Imagine my shock to see he’s such a PYT (that’s Michael Jackson-ese for Pretty Young Thing).
Back to the question at hand. Is it wrong to give thanks for the catalog?
Or to thank God when I find a parking place at the mall close to the door?
Or when the snow melts quickly because I’m so sick of snow I could scream?
Or when I see a collection of robins hopping around my yard, so I know even if it doesn’t feel like it, spring is here or they wouldn’t be?
Well-meaning people may imply these are trivial, silly, selfish things. It is disrespectful to thank God for such drivel.
How dare I be so trite with the Holy Almighty God. He is God and I am not.
And for that matter, I should not pray with my eyes open or when driving or doing anything else, but only during a scheduled quiet time first thing in the morning. I should not wear shorts either.
Okay. I’m kidding about the shorts. No one has implied that to me. Yet.
God is God. He is Holy. Almighty. Perfect. I am not. Agreed.
But I am His child.
And if He sees me at all like I see my child, nothing is drivel really. What matters to my child matters to me. Big or small. Important or trivial. Serious or shallow.
The One who made all the stars and calls them each by name, who sees even the smallest sparrow fall, who knows the number of hairs on my head, He is my Father and He knows. He knows. He knows.
Be it day or dark of night, whenever I am blessed with the slightest tinge of joy or troubled by the most fleeting of worries, He says to me, “Bring it, child. Bring it.”
And when I do, it is well with my soul.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1 NIV
brave heart
To listen to Children of God by Third Day on their website, click here. Grab a box of tissues. They have quite a message to share.
