A-Z Thanks for this Year's Thanksgiving

Lord, 

I come, amazed at Your blessings that overflow into our lives. I could spend hours just praising You, but to keep my list relatively short, I’ll walk through the alphabet. 

Thank You, Lord, for

• Answered prayer.
• Beautiful days. The beauty around me always points me to Your creative genius. Thank You for giving me eyes to see and appreciate the beauty around me.
• Charlie. He could so easily have died this month, but You gave Him back to me. Thank you.
• Doctors and nurses who made Charlie’s stay in the hospital so much easier. Thank You for the training and wisdom they have to help sick and injured people get well again.
• Electronic devices. Thank You that we were able to reach an ambulance quickly with my cell phone. Thank You that I was able to call family as I drove to the hospital with the blue tooth connection to my phone.
• Friends. Thank You for the way they rallied around us with their support.
• Grace. You have given us Your grace to meet this trial. Every day we need it, and every day it’s there.
• House. It keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer and gives us a place to call home.
• Internet. It was so easy to get online and let everyone know what was happening.
• Jogging. Thank You that Charlie has been physically active. We keep hearing that his recovery will be quicker because he paid attention to his health.
• Kia. Thank You for a reliable car that gets us where we need to go for all the appointments Charlie has these days.
• Linwood Baptist Church and the other churches that have prayed for us throughout our ministry, especially in these past few days.
• Mornings. Thank You that Charlie’s energy is pretty good in the morning and that most of his therapy sessions are happening in the morning.
• Nieces, nephews and the rest of our extended family who have been so supportive of us during this time.
• Opportunities. Thank You for every opportunity that comes our way. Help us to make the most of them.
• Peace. Thank You for the peace You give. It has carried me through many uncertain hours and days in the past and especially in recent days.
• Quiet. These days Charlie needs a lot of it. Thank you for quiet days between therapy days.
• Rest and recovery. Thank You that Charlie is able to rest and recover.
• Speech. We don’t think that much of our ability to talk until it’s taken away. Thank You that You are restoring Charlie’s speech.
• Therapists and therapy. What an amazing time in the history of our world that we have people who specialize in helping injured people heal. Thank You for this blessing. The therapists Charlie is seeing have been kind and helpful. Thank You for their attempts to understand what he is experiencing.
• Unknown. Thank You that I didn’t know Charlie’s stroke was coming. I would have been a nervous wreck all day and even the days, weeks and months leading up to it. Thank You that I don’t know the future, but that I trust You, the One who does. Thank You that You hold all my tomorrows in Your hand.
• Vascular doctors. Thank You, Lord, for doctors who are trained in the diagnosis of strokes and the prevention of it happening again. Yet we recognize that You are the One that gave him life, and You are the One that knows how long his life will be. Thank You that the doctors were there, but even more, thank You that You were there.
• Wellness. Thank You for keeping me well while we work through Charlie’s recovery.
• X-rays and other medical tests. Thank You that these medical devices enabled the doctors to see, understand, and treat his stroke relatively quickly.
• Your vast love for us.
• Zest for life. Thank You that even though Charlie could be enjoying heaven instead of being here on this earth, You have given him a zest for life and a desire to use his days for eternity. 

Lord, this list doesn't come close to all the things I have been considering in my list of praises to You for all You have done. With almost every letter, I could have listed multiple other things. But I give You thanks because Your blessings are innumerable.

Amen.


Photo: Charlie has always loved being physically active. 

Thankful

Thank You, God, for You. You are amazing, holy, and glorious, yet You condescended to make me and to know me.   Your grace drew me, saved me, and now keeps me from falling so that I will be presented faultless before You. You even found a place for me to serve You, a calling that humbles me with awe at Your benevolent grace.

You overflow with blessings that spill into our lives at every moment. Too often we take those everyday blessings for granted: the air we breathe, the sun in the sky and rain that falls, a place to live, clothes to wear and food to eat. We scorn the good things that come our way by assuming that we somehow deserve what graciously drops from your hand.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am so aware of Your many blessings to me. Today I awoke in a warm house on a cold morning. I saw the sunrise, pink and blue etching the sky, a sign of Your powerful creativity and undying faithfulness. I saw my parents who I never thought would still be an active part of my life at this stage in my life. We rode in a reliable car to the airport to put them on a plane. I ate a hot breakfast, sitting across from my very best friend who also happens to be my loving husband. I still have enough good health to join hundreds of runners on a Turkey Trot this morning. We had clean clothes to change into before joining some of God's people to serve meals at a shelter and then sit down and enjoy a turkey dinner together with them. This afternoon a nap and watching football gave us a relaxing day. The telephone allowed me to connect with family, spread across the U.S. Coffee and pumpkin cheesecake finished off a very good day. Thank You, Lord.

Although we take time today to make a point of saying "Thank You," my life would be bereft of much of its joy without daily thanks. So tomorrow when I rise, I will again give You thanks once again for some of Your many blessings.

There is no God like You who blesses us with so many blessings. It is impossible for us to count, let alone properly savor each blessing you send. Thank you for being so generous to me. My cup is truly running over.

Whispers

A teenage girl leans in to a close friend and whispers about the boy she likes.  A child reaches up and pulls down his dad's head to whisper his desire for ice cream.  Husbands and wives whisper their love for one another in the darkness of night.  During a concert, a proud mother whispers to her guest that her child has the next solo.  

Whispers are for two people.  We do not speak in whispers when we want others to hear.  We might speak quietly if we want only a small group to hear, but we do not whisper.

Yet this week I am learning about another kind of whisper.  Friday night I lost my voice.  After that, only whispers escaped my lips.  Any attempts to vocalize caused pain.  I have lost my voice before, and it has usually returned in a day or two.  This time is different.  Four days later I am still without a voice. I can only speak in whispers.

Whisper a prayer in the morning.  Whisper a prayer at noon.  Whisper a prayer in the evening to keep your heart in tune. 

So goes the song.

Yes, I have whispered my prayers all through the day.  Whispered prayers are as effective as those I have prayed with a loud voice, and maybe even more so, depending on the state of my heart.  My inability to communicate with others has given me more time for prayer.  Whispers work in my prayers to God, and I love the fact that He can hear my whispering heart even if everyone else is crying out to Him with a loud voice.  Whispers work in my prayers.

But there are so many times when whispers do not work well.  When I am out on the street, desperate to catch a child's attention because of an oncoming vehicle, a whisper will not do.  When I am in church and everyone around me is lifting their voices in praise to our Almighty God, my little whisper is not enough.  When I am out on the street inviting children to Vacation Bible School, parents eye me suspiciously when they hear me whisper to their children.  Yesterday, in a large group of people, I wanted to chime into the conversation, but a whisper is not heard over the buzz of friendly banter.  I cannot even give directions from the back seat of a vehicle.  Obviously, I cannot teach so long as I am voiceless.

I am sometimes called a quiet person, yet I am realizing how vocal I really am.  Everywhere I turn, I find that I miss using my voice.  I want to be able to call out a greeting to a neighbor on the street, thank a child effusively before she runs off again to play, and join in the conversation around the table.  But most of all, I miss being able to sing, to lift my voice in praise to the God I love.

For that, whispers will not do.

Just a Spoiled North American

Coming back from a month abroad can have several effects on me.  Sometimes I return aware that I miss being abroad and I am disappointed by how fast the time went by.  Sometimes I feel so blessed by the amenities we have here.  This time, though, I came back so very conscious of how spoiled I really am.  There are so many things that I have come to expect after living a life of relative comfort here in the United States.  Being abroad this time was a reminder to me that the rest of the world often has relatively few of the things that I think are normal.


As a North American, I often do not even think about what great blessings these things are.    

• Safe drinking water flowing out of the tap.  We purchased bottled water the whole time we were gone.  Even though many of the places had safe water, we knew there were places where the safest thing for us was to buy bottled water.
• Water that flows into our home 24-hours a day instead of having just a half hour to fill your buckets so that you have water for the rest of the day. Although this was the case in only one location in Peru, it was a reminder to me that this is a reality for many people in the world.
• Hot water in the shower.  On a hot day, I do not mind a cold shower or even a cold bucket bath; but on colder days, I really appreciate the reliability of hot water flowing from the shower head.
• A washing machine that does a good job of getting my clothes clean rather than having to wash them by hand on the rocks.
• A dryer that quickly dries our clothes, even the towels and jeans, on rainy days and adds softness to them.  We do not have to wait days for things to dry on rainy days.
• A car rather than having to rely on public transportation.  I appreciate the lower prices of public transportation, however.
• Public transportation that runs on a schedule instead of "when the seats are full."  A trip that could happen in two hours might take all day since you never know when departure will happen.
• Refrigerators that allow you to purchase more than a one or two-day supply of fresh food at a time.  Daily trips to market allow for fresh food, but they certainly take time.
• Ice in our drinks.  We would have avoided asking for ice anyway, but it is nice to be able to put ice in my beverage if I want some.
• All-day electricity.  In the jungle town, we had electricity from 6:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.  We charged our cell phones and computers during this time.  During the hottest part of the day, however, there was no availability for anything that might cool you, not even an electric fan.



Charlie enjoying a frozen Passion Fruit drink on our last day.

• Fresh vegetables that can be eaten raw without pre-soaking in anti-bacterial vegetable wash.  I came back craving salads.  Fresh fruit, on the other hand, was something we had in abundance.  Now I find I miss the variety of fresh fruit juices that were available there.
• Screens on our windows and doors.  I walked into our hotel room, and one of the first things I noticed was the screens.  How grateful I was for them as we saw that most of the homes did not have them.
• A variety in our breakfasts.  This may have been the first time in my life when I said that I had enough white rice for a while. Every morning we had the same thing - white rice, white beans, plantain, and eggs.  It was tasty and I was grateful for it, but it is nice to have some variety.
  
• Covers on my bed.  It was warm enough in the jungle that we did not need covers, but I missed having a top sheet.  Yet I was grateful for what we had.  I am not sure how well I would have fared in a hammock instead.
• Septic systems that allow you to flush your toilet paper and the availability of toilet paper in public rest rooms.

There are other things I could likely mention, but that is enough for now.  I am willing and ready to give up any of those things for a short time.  I could also learn to live without them, but I find it is not as easy as it used to be.  I really have become a spoiled North American.  Maybe it's time to shed some of these comforts and learn to appreciatethe advantages of living without them.

Counting to Ten on Thanksgiving Day

 

On this beautiful day of Thanksgiving, I stop to count some of the sweet blessings that God has given through the years.  These are broad, sweeping statements.  Perhaps later I will add some more specific ones, but these are huge blessings in my life that I never want to forget.

1. God saved me.  On a hot, sunny day in Indonesia as a five-year-old child, God showed me the enormity of my sin and my need of a Savior.  My mother led me in a simple prayer and my life forever changed.  Today my heart overflows with the joy of knowing I am loved and safe with God.
2. Sixteen years ago God gave me a wonderful, godly husband.  I had to wait a long time to find him.  I let other opportunities for marriage go by as I waited for this man that I hoped existed and who was the other half of me.  Today I give thanks for his godly leadership, his thoughtful intelligence, and his Christ-like love for me.
3. God gave me godly parents.  Throughout my life, I have witnessed firsthand their faith and commitment to God.  They have been faithful witnesses to me of what it means to trust and follow God.  Today I give thanks that at 89 years of age, they are still part of my life.   
4. The Bible.  What a precious book.  Everyday when I open its pages, I marvel again how it speaks to me afresh.  Today I found plenty of passages that gave me words of thanksgiving to fill my heart with praise.
5. Church.  Whether I am talking about our church in Georgia, the church my husband pastored in Maine, or the many other churches where I worshiped and worked through the years, I am so grateful for the role of the church in my life.  The teaching I have received there and the fellowship of the believers have been a help in hard times and a way to celebrate the good times.  Church has helped me grow and made me of more service to God than I ever would have been alone.
6. Health.  I know of so many people my age who are struggling with physical issues.  How thankful I am for good health. As I get older, I am getting glimpses of the fact that my body may not always be healthy, so I am doubly thankful for health today.
7. Beauty.  We live in a beautiful world.  I sometimes wonder how heaven could possibly be any better than this, but I am convinced that it is.
8. The gift of sight.  Every time I stop of admire the color of a fresh flower, the sparkling of dew on the grass, the arch of a double rainbow in the sky, or the glow of autumn leaves in the morning sunlight, I marvel that God would give me eyes to see such beauty.  Along with that gift, I am also giving thanks today for eyeglasses.  I see more clearly with them and appreciate God’s beauty more with them.
9. Music.  Right now the sound of a professional choir singing “We Gather Together” is filtering up the stairs and into the room where I write.  My heart soars in praise when I hear beautiful music, whether it is the sound of a pipe organ that leads a congregation in song, a cello playing “It Is Well” or a child’s voice singing “Jesus loves me.”  Today music helps me lift my heart in praise in a way that a world without music could not.
10. The gift of hearing.  As I get older, my hearing is not nearly as good as it used to be.  I notice it when a mosquito has to get close to me for me to hear it rather than hearing it across the room the way I did when I was younger.  Still, I am amazed that God would let me hear the beautiful and no-so-beautiful sounds around me.  Our hearing helps protect us from danger as well as letting us enjoy so much – the singing of birds, the patter of rain, and the thundering of the waterfall.
    
    Thanksgiving Day sounds are all around me.  I hear a knife on wood as someone cuts vegetables in the kitchen.  A full choir sings through computer speakers.  Footsteps sound in the hallway.  Muted conversations drift through the open door.  Dishes clatter.  The oven door squeaks open and then closed.  A door shuts.  The clock ticks.  A cell phone announces an incoming message.  Cars whisper by on the road outside.  All in all, they remind me that a family has gathered to feast and thank the Lord for His blessings.
    
    Thank you, Lord, for hearing.

And so I have counted to ten.  To be honest, this is only a start.  My blessings, should I count them all, would number in the thousands.

In Praise of My Household Servants

Sometimes as I fall asleep at night, I hear the maids still at work, their low humming or rhythmic beating continuing long after I’ve gotten in bed.

What?  Maids, you say?  You mean, you have maids?

Why yes, don’t you?

I have a bunch of them, so many in fact, that I don’t always remember their names.  Let’s see if I can remember them all now.  Those of you who know me will know which ones I’ve overlooked.
There’s the maid that hauls the water and heats it up for our baths.  We normally call her Faucet.  She’s very reliable, and she doesn’t even grumble when we ask her for water in the middle of the night to flush the commode.

There are two maids, Washer and Dryer, that share the work of doing the laundry.  They are fast.  I throw the laundry at them, and in a very short time they have it back to me.  Because they are so fast, they don’t work every day.  They are also the ones that often like to work at night after I’ve gone to bed.  I don’t mind if Washer keeps working, but Dryer has a celebratory screech she makes when she’s finished, so sometimes I ask her to wait until morning to finish her job.

In our last house, we even had one whose sole job was to do the dishes.  Granted, she wasn’t a fulltime maid, and she couldn’t do them as fast as I could, but her being on our household staff meant that I didn’t have to do that job. 

Then there is the old matron who caries messages for us. She can take any message, to nearly anyone, at any time, and in an instant. She has several children who she has trained in this service so she goes by Ma Bell.
We have other servants. There is the groundskeeper who can cut the grass so evenly, it’s amazing.  Sure, I have to walk around with him.  He is rather young so that unlike some of the other servants, he can’t do it without one of us there.  Still, his abilities are quite remarkable.  Thanks, Mower, for all the work you do.  Put a sickle in my hand and the lawn just wouldn’t look as nice.

Then there’s one that is absolutely amazing.  We call her Electricity.  She keeps the furnace going in the winter, fans us in Summer and stokes the cookstove.  She lights the lamps for us at night.  She winds the clocks and the music box.  She even is able to make the picture box light up to let us watch moving pictures.  She is so efficient that she often helps the other maids with their work.

We also have a stable master.  He keeps the horses fed, groomed and the carriage running smoothly.  All we have to do is head out the door, and there’s the carriage ready and waiting for us.  He hands over the reins, and off we go.  His name is Hyundai.

Then there’s the gardener and his family.  He’s no ordinary gardener.  He not only keeps the garden for us, but when his family harvests the vegetables, they goes to the trouble of cleaning them and sometimes even cutting them up, so that when I go to cook, all I have to do is throw them in the pan.  They take the wheat to the miller and bring it back already ground into flour for us.  Sometimes they even take the flour to the baker so that I don’t even have to bake the bread.  He takes our animals to the butcher and brings back the meat all packaged up and ready for us. His abilities are truly astounding.  Through trade and bartering, he can produce from his larder almost any fruit or vegetable; any meat, fish or fowl;  any grain, flour, bread or cake I desire, regardless of the season! His name is Hannaford.

Sometimes I can’t believe how blessed I am to have all these servants.  Not only do they work hard, they almost never complain.  They cost very little to feed, and they lighten my load so much.  

So today I give thanks for all the household help I have.  If I didn’t have all that help, I certainly wouldn’t be able to spend most of my day doing the other jobs I do. 

One Hundred Reasons

Why I'm Thankful to Be a Child of God

In my Sunday School class one Sunday in Maine, I made an off-hand remark that I thought I could probably come up with 100 reasons why I am glad I am a Christian. One of my students said, “Then why don’t you?” I counter-challenged my class of fifth and sixth graders to each come up with a list of twenty reasons why it is good to be a Christian. I made one qualifier. Only ten percent of the reasons could be about heaven. I wanted them to see that the joys of being a Christian are for today, not just for the distant future when they die, as important as that is. While this is by no means exhaustive, this is my list.

1. The One to whom I give thanks during this season is not some mysterious “higher power” but a friend who is closer than a brother.
2. I can be at peace. (Rom. 5:1)
3. I have everlasting comfort. (II Thess. 2:16)
4. I can always have hope. (Heb. 6:18-19, I Pet. 1:3)
5. The Almighty God loves me. (John 3:16 and many others)
6. I can be content with little because I have God. (Heb. 13:5)
7. Nothing can separate me from God’s love. (Rom. 8:35-39)
8. He gives me a reason (many reasons, actually) to sing. (Psalm 146:2)
9. No one can take God’s joy from me. (John 16:22)
10. I am a joint heir together with Jesus. (Rom. 8:17)
11. I am receiving an inheritance which will never lose its value. (I Peter 1:4)
12. God will provide for all of my needs. (Phil. 4:19)
13. He will not withhold anything from me that is good for me. (Psalm 84:11)
14. I cannot out-give God.  (Luke 6:38)
15. God can take the little we have and make it last for as long as we need it.  (I Kings 17)
16. Jesus is preparing a home for me in heaven (John 14:2)
17. I have a mansion (well, at least a perfect dwelling place) awaiting me.  (John 14:1)
18. I can endure any trial on this earth because they are so small compared to the glories that await us in heaven. (Romans 8:18)
19. Some day I will be part of a great multitude from every tribe and nation who worship our Savior together. (Rev. 7:9-10)
20. The things of this earth that seem so valuable now will be the construction materials of heaven.  So if my jewelry is fake, it doesn’t matter.  Either way, it won’t be worth anything to me then.
21. I do not have to worry about being rich in this life because our riches in heaven will far exceed anything we imagine here. (John 14:1-3; Revelation 21)
22. I get to begin my eternal life with God now.  (John 17:3)
23. I will get to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus.
24. There is nothing that can separate me from God’s love.  (Romans 8:38-39)
25. I am accepted because of Jesus. (Ephesians 1:6)
26. God knew me before anyone even knew my great-great-grandparents (II Timothy 1:9)
27. God chose me before the world was formed to be holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:4)
28. I have been adopted into God’s family (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:5)
29. Jesus is my older brother (Rom. 8:29)
30. I have been created to do good works.  (Ephesians 2:10)
31. I belong to a huge international family that has been brought together under God through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  (Ephesians 3:15)
32. In Jesus, I have a perfect example to follow.  I do not need to worry that one day I will find out that my example was not worth following. (Ephesians 5:1-2)
33. I have been given a new nature.  (II Corinthians 5:17)
34. God is my Keeper. (Psalm 121:5)Therefore, I am His keepsake. (Ps. 121:5)
35. I belong to a huge family that is made up of others who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:14-15)
36. I am secure in God’s hands. (John 10:28)
37. Jesus gives me abundant life.  (John 10:10)
38. The Lord will carry me, even into my old age. (Isaiah 46:4)
39. I should have been cursed because of my sin, but Jesus became accursed and died for me in my stead. (Galatians 3:13)
40. Since God gave up his only Son in order to redeem me, I can be positive that He will not withhold anything good from me.  (Romans 8:32)
41. God’s truth has made me free. (John 8:32)
42. God has let me in on the mystery of His will (Eph. 1:7)
43. God has opened my understanding so that I can know the hope and the riches to which He has called me. (Eph. 1:18)
44. I have access to all the truth I need through God’s Word. 
45. I may boldly appear at the throne of grace at any time (Hebrews 4:16)
46. My prayers will be answered. (Matt. 7:7-8)
47. When I cannot put my heart’s needs into prayer, the Holy Spirit takes what I offer and turns it into genuine prayer to God.  (Romans 8:26)
48. God is always ready to help me. (Ps. 145:18)
49. I do not have to go through a priest to have my prayer heard. 
50. Because of Jesus, I have access to the Holy of Holies. (Hebrews 10:19)
51. God has outlined the good works I am to do and directs me toward them (Eph. 2:10)
52. God is on my side. (Psalm 118:8)
53. God will never leave me. (Heb. 13:5)
54. God even gave me the heart I needed to have in order to seek Him.  (Jeremiah 24:7)
55. He is my hiding place. (Psalm 32:7)
56. God will keep working on me. (Phil. 1:6, I Peter 5:10)
57. We are on the winning side. (Rom. 8:31; I Cor. 15:5)
58. God is my refuge in every trial. (Ps. 46:1)
59. The Holy Spirit is there to comfort me in every trial. (II Corinthians 1:4)
60. In every trial, I can be sure that God is bringing good into my life. (Rom. 8:28)
61. I am like a sweet perfume to God. (II Corinthians 2:15)
62. God’s grace saved me. (Ephesians 2:8)
63. God does not deal with me as my sins deserve.  (Ps. 103:10)
64. God’s grace is available to me for every trial.
65. God is rich in mercy toward me. (Ephesians 2:4)
66. God’s mercies are new to me every single morning. (Lamentations3:22-23)
67. God is faithful to keep all of His promises. ( II Corinthians 1:20)
68. God is my light. He makes the way clear when all seems dark. (Psalm 27:1)
69. God gives us wisdom and the revelation of Himself through the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 1:17)
70. I am, even now, seated in heavenly places with Jesus. (Eph. 2:6)
71. I have the Holy Spirit with me to convict me when I sin. (John 16:8)
72. Sin no longer has the same power over me (Rom. 6:14)
73. I have been forgiven of all my sin (I John 1:9)
74. God has removed my sins from me as far as the east is from the west.  (Psalm 103:12)  Another analogy for the same thought:  He has sunk my sins into the deepest sea.  (Micah 7:19)  Corrie TenBoom was known to say, “And then he posted a sign that said, “No fishing.”
75. God will not allow me to be tempted or tested beyond what I can bear. (II Corinthians 10:13)
76. God is much stronger than the devil or his minions. (I John 4:4)
77. God gives me a song to sing, even in times of darkness.  (Job 35:10, Psalm 42:8)
78. I do not have to fear the powers of darkness.  When I resist them, they will flee.  (James 4:7)
79. God gives me everything I need to fight the powers of darkness.  (Ephesians 6:11)
80. God is able to keep me from falling. (Jude 1:24)
81. God preserves me from the guilt and consequences of sins by keeping me from the sin itself.
82. God will forgive when I repent. (I John 1:9)
83. There is never an end to God’s unfailing love.  
84. With God’s help, I can do anything He asks of me. (John 15:4, Philippians 4:13)
85. God will not stop working on me. (Philippians 1:6)
86. God is working in me to want and to do His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
87. I can do the will of God just by being thankful. (I Thess. 5:18)
88. I do not have to worry about what God’s will is for my life because He has told me what it is: sanctification. (I Thessalonians 4:3)
89. He has made me truly alive (Eph. 2:1)
90. The Almighty God is going to get glory from His work in my life. (II Cor. 4:15)
91. God restores my soul. (Psalm 23:3)
92. My God is slow to anger.  (Psalm 145:8)  When he does get angry, he does not keep his anger forever.  (Ps. 103:9)
93. By faith, I can please God.  (Hebrews 11:6)
94. With God, all things are possible.  (Mark 10:27)  Therefore, anything God asks me to do is possible.
95. The Lord is my help.  (Ps. 54:4)
96. Whenever I draw near to God, He draws near to me.  (James 4:8)
97. Because of God’s grace, I understand that all the beauty of nature around me is a gift from Him.
98. All of my sins were put to death on the cross. 
99. Because of God’s grace at work in me, I can make a list like this that comes with gratitude from the heart.
100. I know how it’s all going to end.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

I went on a walk this afternoon and was thinking about this list.  Half a dozen more ideas came to mind.  So if you see a couple you think should have been combined into one, don’t worry.  I still have more.