Stop & Give Thanks & Pray

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.” Psalms 100:4 NIV

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks. The election is over and we will have a new (old) president in the New Year. For over half of the country, that is terrific news and a burden has been lifted. For the others, they are unhappy, but they shouldn’t be any more worried than those over half were for the past four years were, right? After all they thought the past four years were awesome when the other over half thought it was horrible. Some of the behaviors I saw in videos after the election was over were absolutely ridiculous; adults having temper tantrums like 2-year old children. I do not recall any other time in my life seeing adults behave in this manner. What we really need to do right now is STOP! I mean really STOP! STOP all the noise, politics, bickering, division, anger, etc., and we need to GIVE THANKS for everything we have because WE HAVE A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR.

If you consider everything you see and hear online and on video these days, we sound like the most ungrateful nation of people on earth. We complain about the most minuscule nonsense. We have taught our children and grandchildren to complain about things we would have never been allowed to complain about because these things would’ve never been issues in our homes. Our parents and grandparents did not cater to every whim we had. They did not ask us what we wanted to eat for dinner. Our mothers and grandmothers cooked and we ate what was on the plate in front of us. We either ate for dinner or we ate for breakfast (or the next dinner); it was our choice. There was no complaining about it, or that was a butt whooping.

We also wore the clothes that were purchased for us, or that were given to us; many times those were “hand me downs” from older siblings or family members. There was no complaining about that either. You may or may not have liked your “hand me downs”. I didn’t mind mine so much because they came from my cousins who I thought were really cool. They didn’t live in the same town as me, so no one else saw them wearing those clothes. Now, if you had multiple siblings of the same gender and those clothes went through multiple kids, that could be embarrassing, but you couldn’t complain about it where your parents could hear it. You just got used to sharing…sharing everything clothes, bikes, books, everything. This just doesn’t happen today. Everyone has their own things and no one truly knows what real sacrifice is like, at least not the greater majority of this country.

For the 37.9 million (11.5%) of the US population who lives in poverty, this is not about them. We know that they know about sacrifice and about saving every penny to do what you can for your family. This is about teaching our over privileged children the real value of what they have and to respect it because from where I sit, they do not.

Recently, I was watching some videos on YouTube that reviewed videos by “influencers” on TikTok. The reviewer was criticizing the “influencers” for lying about their lifestyles in order to make money. It wasn’t news to me, but it did get me to thinking about this whole fake world that the Internet has created for “influencers” that generates millions, if not billions, of dollars of income. It truly boggles the mind because these young people create videos of fake lifestyles to sell products that they may or may not use to make money. The viewer, I assume, watches these videos believing that these “influencers” live like this, or do they really understand that the video may be false and they don’t really care? If they don’t care, what does that say about them? It all sounds like this creates, promotes, and sustains mental illness. Even more disturbing is when these videos involve families, especially those where children are forced to participate by their parents. I recall when my daughter watched a family with two children, a son and a daughter who reviewed toys, food, and games. I thought it was very strange. I thought the parents were strange. They did not have regular jobs. They had quit their jobs to YouTube full time with their children. That was strange to me. How could make money doing that, and why would you want to do that to your children? It did not seem healthy to me.

This is not healthy. All of these unhealthy lifestyles being promoted via the Internet and going to drive us further into a very dangerous place. That is why I believe it is time for us to STOP! We need to take account of what our priorities are for our families, especially our children. Somehow we have to stop promoting these fake lifestyles and start promoting what is real, what is authentic, what truly matters to the heart and soul of human beings. The election was only one part of the needed change in direction for the United States. If we do not continue to pivot and repent, taking account of all we are doing wrong, nothing will truly change. This means not just looking at what’s wrong with the nation, but also with ourselves and our individual families. Some of us will have lots of work to do, and others not so much, but we will all have work to be done. My guide is found in The Word…The Bible. Everything we need to know is found there.

As we gather around our tables this Thanksgiving, we MUST THANK GOD for all HE has done for us this year. We MUST ask him to continue to guide us in the RIGHT DIRECTION and AWAY from the dangerous path we have set ourselves on. We MUST ask for HIS protection for our families and our country and we MUST ask for HIS forgiveness for how we have gotten ourselves in this predicament. We cannot stop there, either. We MUST continue to pray and we MUST teach our children to pray and to find their strength in the Lord, not in the things of the world. Everything that this nation has comes from the blessings of the Lord, not from anything we have earned or could ever earn. Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with your children. The more we pray, the harder the evil one will work against us, so that makes all the more important.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Happy Thanksgiving!