Happy Thanksgiving!!

Psalm 13:5-6
But I have trusted in your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Today as I think of all the many things I have to be thankful for I was thinking of my dad. He was so very thankful for many things. He showed an appreciation for the little things and wanted to share that with people as an encouragement. He would enjoy some one's dish at a potluck and seek them out to thank them, he would appreciate what someone shared on a Sunday and tell them, he would look at a situation and choose to be thankful and find the good in it.
I miss him so much. I miss him so much that sometimes it feels as though I could go a little nuts not knowing what to do with the grief but then I think about the Lord and his perfect plans for me. My dad wrote this verse to me in a card on my 18th birthday when I was really living in rebellion and he said with it this is my prayer for you this year to discover the Lord's will and way for your life and not to compromise or settle for anything less:
Jeremiah 29:11-13
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart.

The Lord has awesome plans for our lives and we do not always understand them. This may seem trivial but it was hard when we got an illness this week and Thanksgiving got moved. ( thank you Lynn for being flexible and willing to have it at your house) I was really looking forward to having everyone here as a family. Remembering dad and talking about what we are so thankful for and what we have seen the Lord doing this year. Being together all of us for the first time as a whole family when we can sit and enjoy one another and support one another. But the Lord has a different plan for me this year. He has chosen to sit me aside and to lean on Him tomorrow. He has seen fit that it is best for me to be with the kiddos and to be a mommy. Lord willing I will go for a little while and then come home and be with my hubby and kiddos ( and pie) before Micah goes to work. :)
I am praying today for a heart of gratitude and for being thankful and seeing the good of the Lord's plan even if it was not what I desired.
He has dealt bountifully with me and given us all good things!!!!
I hope each of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving and that it is filled with rejoicing over your salvation and hope in the Lord!!!!!!!! If you do not have that sure hope my prayer for you is that you will not go any further without knowing for sure where you would go if you were to die today.
Although I miss my dad more then I have ever missed anyone before I have to say in the words of my son, " Papa is going to have an awesome Thanksgiving!!!!" Praise the Lord for our eternal Hope!!
Happy Thanksgiving from the Daniel family to each and every one of you!