Thanksgiving

I found this poem in a thanksgiving book and I wanted to share it because it was so meaningful...

At the First Thanksgiving

Plymouth 1621From friendly Squanto, wise in all things wild,
We found out where the fattest codfish flash.
To mingle beans and corn in succotash
We learned. We learned as if we were one child.

Today we feast on maple planks
Before Chief Massasoit and ninety braves
Now out of barrels bound by stout oak staves
We draw a drink to raise in heartfelt thanks

For turkeycock, ripe pumpkin, squash, and gourd,
For stalks that stand all ears in heavy row,
FOr fallow deer that round the woodlands go ----
Praise to thee, Lord!

By winter winds whose edges carve like knives
Our numbers have been pared.
Now we who have been spared
Thank the Good Lord who took but half our lives.

I found this Thanksgiving poem and I wanted to share it because it made me laugh!

The Turkey's Wattle

Said the Turtle to the Turkey

Every time he came to visit,

"There's a funny hunk of wrinkle

Where your chin should be, what is it?"

Said the Turkey to the Turtle,

"Oh, this rubber decoration?

Heavens, no, I wouldn't tell you

'Cause it makes for conversation.

At Thanksgiving during dinner-

It's my relative they're carving!---

Silly People sit around and

Stuff themselves as if they're starving,

And you know the only question

They can think of while they visit?

'Say, that funny hunk of wrinkle

Round a Turkey's chin, what is it!"

J. Patrick Lewis

Ditties

These are the latest ditties around here...

This one is done mainly with Joshua, and his laughter is the most beautiful thing on earth!

I found a little boy

He was standing on his head

I picked him up and lay him down

Right upon his bed

I took him out of bed

And lay him on the floor

And tickled him and tickled him

Until he cried "No More!"

This one came out while David brushed his teeth before bed tonight:

Brush your teeth and brush them well

Then your breath it will not smell

Brush before you go to bed

Then your teeth won't fall out of your head!

De-spare

My son David: Mom, what is round and sad and goes in the back trunk?

Mom: I don't know, what?

David: De spare tire!

:: Mom rolls on the floor, laughing in utter delight ::

For some reason, perhaps because I am rising from a pit of despair, I absolutely love this joke! It seems to have a lot of dimensions to it, and if I'm am anything at all, I am a trans-dimensional individual. I mean, really, my despair is not something I wear on my sleeve - I would really prefer that it go in the trunk of my car so that I could go on my "merry" way and no one would realize that I was needy. And if I had a trunk on this vessel 'o mine, I would certainly put my "spare tire" in it, instead of wearing it for all the world to see.

Despair is something we need to take a little more seriously, however. In all honesty, I feel that it can be a good thing in my life. Growth in the Lord Jesus Christ seems to come in cycles in my life. I'll enter a season where my face is turned toward the Sonshine and the wonder and delight of God endlessly impresses me and doing the right thing is effortless! The transformation of glory - halleiluia!

Transversely, I'll enter a cloudy season, where my heart begins to drift from God and I am doing my own thing; never dreaming that I will falter in one area or another. It seems that I begin to sink when my heart begins to put it's hope in the wrong place.
The definition of despair is: To lose, give up, or be without hope.

Here are a few scriptures about hope...

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Romans 8:24-25 " For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
Romans 5:5 "Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

So my faith is the substance and evidence of things hoped for and not seen, I am saved by hope, and hope squashes my shame because of the Holy Spirit living in my heart. This is cool stuff! I think the Holy Spirit must be a hope generator. And when I am listening and obeying Him on a moment-by-moment basis, God becomes so evident; hence, my faith grows.

Hmmmm.

There doesn't seem to be any room here for despair.

So I think I'll just ask God to breathe some more air (pneuma) in my tires :-).