One day away from Thanksgiving Day, 2014. How are doing? Do you need to go to the store again? Any housecleaning yet to do? Will it all get done? Well, one way or the other Thanksgiving Day will arrive and we make of it what we will.

Over the past few weeks I hope you have been getting not just you panty ready but also your spirit. Maybe the quoutes and thoughts offered here (and at commonplacebook.discipleswalk.org) have helped some.

Consider for a few moments today these words from P. Joel Snider,

Praise differs from thanksgiving, which is offered for a specific reason or a particular gift. Praise does not depend on any single deed or gift of God. It is a prayer, chorus, or hymn directed to God out of endless wonder from our endless discovery of who God is.

Praise goes beyond thanksgiving to express our amazement at God’s concern for us that exceeds our expectation, merit, or imagination. Thus, praising God begins in surprise. God provides more. God is more than we had hoped or dared to imagine.

(From: P. Joel Snider, The Upper Room Disciplines 2015: A Book of Daily Devotions, reading for June 3, 2015, p 166)

Does that register with you? Is there a movement that can happen from being thankful for a thing or person or event to praise? to wonder? to endless discovery?

What surprises will you encounter today and tomorrow as you offer thanks and praise?

Charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

Follow all the posts for Thanksgiving 2014 at –
http://commonplacebook.discipleswalk.org/tag/thanksgiving-2014/