Thankful Thursday, Thanks for?

I remember watching an old Jimmy Stewart movie Shenandoah when I was young. In the movie his wife; a good Christian woman had died and he was raising his 6 son’s and one daughter alone. As they sat down to dinner one evening, he gave the following prayer:

“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, amen.”


Lately that is how I feel. I have “things” but nothing fancy. I live in a modest home and drive an inexpensive car. I work hard every day and have worked since I was 16 but seldom have money. It seems like something is always breaking around my house so I seldom have the luxury to just sit and relax. And on the few occasions that I have a chance to do something relaxing like going out in my boat, in the back of my mind I have that long list of things that I need to do because I can’t afford to pay anyone else to do them.

In the past year I have had to fix cars, boats, pumps, computers, wells, septic systems, doors windows, animals, school projects, electrical things, mechanical things, hydraulics, transmissions, etc, etc and all with knowledge that I taught myself. Other than the electrical part, I never had a lick of training on anything I fixed. I either found an instruction book or I just went into it blind and “Tried” to see if I could fix it. For the most part I was able to figure the things out. I worked in rain, wind, cold heat and in swarms of mosquitoes, fire ants and sand gnats that would make a saint curse.

I have prayed for some kind of relief, any relief at all. Maybe a short period where nothing breaks or a check that arrives that was lost in the mail. A few days off with nothing at all to do would also be nice but so far no relief in sight. I fixed all these things by myself. Yes I got some help from my family but for the most part I did it alone. I got up early, worked until it was dark, cut my hands, got things in my face and eyes, hurt my knees and back. I fixed things myself and if I hadn’t done it, things wouldn’t have gotten done. God I am not sure what or how you helped me fix all the things that broke in the last year but I thank you anyway.

Amen

PS, Thanks for not sending any flooding, fires or earthquakes my way and keeping me strong enough to face another day.

Thanks for a great day,
Greg