Give Thanks

Once again, Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year, Thanksgiving was a bit emotional for me. It has been a year filled with trials, temptation, patience, and most of all, trust. With everything that has been going on with my family this fall, I have learned that I need to trust God in everything I do.

My grandfather was diagnosed with spinal cancer in September - therefore making it impossible for him to help on the farm, as he has done since he came to central Iowa over 66 years ago. He would wake up every morning - at the same time - eat his breakfast, and walk out the door at approximately 6:45 to go feed cattle. From there, he would sit in a combine all day long until it was time to feed cattle again at dusk. However, circumstances have changed and he is no longer able to do the massive amounts of work that he used to - it breaks my heart to not watch him do the things that he truly loves.

In the long run, we have so many things to be thankful for. Friends, family, and the experiences we have been blessed with are all part of that thanksgiving. It is much more than sitting down with our family on Thursday and watching football afterwards - it's about celebrating the success of another year of putting faith in the soil that will hopefully grow a healthy crop, the love of family that surrounds you, and our Lord who watches over us each and every day. So, instead of dwelling on the things in our lives that aren't going correctly, the sicknesses that keep us from doing the things that we love, and the stress from activities around us, take a moment to say a prayer of thanks for all the blessings that we have been given.