Thank you for family. Thank you for choosing them for me. Thank you for the ways they have blessed me over the years. Thank you for using them to teach me so many valuable lessons. Thank you for revealing parts of Your character to me through them. Thank you for times of laughter, times of tears, and for countless hours of fellowship around kitchen tables. Thank you for the unique gifts You've given each one of them. Bless them all, near and far, and be with them in everything. May we continue to pour out Your love on each other. When we don't, please give us the grace we need to forgive and to move forward.
Thank you for my husband. Thank you for choosing him for me and for being the author and sustainer of our love. Thank you that he desires to honor You in every aspect of his life. Thank you for how well he loves me. Thank you for how hard he works to provide for our family! Thank you for who he is. I pray that I may reflect Your unconditional love to him daily in my words, thoughts and actions. Draw us closer to you and closer to each other. Help us discern Your will for our life together and use us to further Your kingdom!
Thank you for my precious child. She is a gift from You that I don't deserve. Thank you for entrusting her to me. Please give me the wisdom, strength and grace to be a godly mother to her. Thank you for the joy she brings to me and to so many. May we relish in that joy, for You are the source of it! I pray that she would come to know You at an early age. Thank you for knitting her together- she is so beautifully and wonderfully made!
Thank you for friends, near and far. They bless me in so many ways! Thank you that we can live in community with one another. Thank you for how they challenge me, listen to me, encourage me and walk beside me on mountaintops and in valleys. Thank you for all the means of communication we have to keep those relationships strong!
Thank you for my church, Your body. Thank you for the freedom I have to worship You with fellow believers. Thank you for the way the pastor speaks Your truth into our lives every Sunday. Thank you for placing me with people who love You, desire to know You more, enjoy studying Your Word and with whom I can enjoy fellowship. Thank you for providing us with a beautiful building where we can worship and serve You. I pray that You use our church in a mighty way in our community. Help us to stay completley centered in You.
Thank you for all of my material blessings- my home, my car, clothing, food on the table and money in the bank, to name a few. Thank you for a comfortable bed where I can rest at the end of every day. Thank you for the house that provides my family with shelter, a place to "do life" and a place to show hospitality to all who enter. Thank you for a refrigerator and pantry full of food. We have in abundance what so many do not have at all. Thank you for providing for us financially. May we be good stewards of everything You have entrusted to us and use these things to bring honor and glory to You!
Most importantly, thank you for who You are. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for loving me so much that You sent Jesus to atone for my sin, that I may be reconciled to You in this life and the next! Your grace is so amazing! Because of Your great love, I can experience the joy of the celebration of Christ's birth! As I enter into this Advent season, may I be reminded of the promise that you fulfilled so long ago with the cross and anticipate the promise of your return! Thank you for hope; and because of hope, joy! Joy to the world, You have come! Let earth receive her king!
I ask all of these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
