Thanksgiving Butter

Thanksgiving Butter

In his book, Praying Over God’s Promises, Tom Yeakley shares his family’s tradition of making butter during the Thanksgiving holiday. Most families have traditions during the holidays, but I would not imagine many have a tradition of making butter.

As the Thanksgiving holiday draws near, the family begins the tradition practice of making homemade butter for Thanksgiving dinner. The process is simple and unique. The cream is placed in a jar with the lid sealed tight and everyone takes turns shaking the jar. As the shaking process continues, several family members get tired because it seems like the cream will never turn to butter.

Then it happens. Almost in the blink of an eye, the cream begins to gel into a lump of butter. When the results of all the shaking occur, the delight in seeing the year’s “Thanksgiving butter” creates a smile.

Much of what we are thankful for is like the process of making homemade butter. Great things take patience and actions to see the result. We will not see the result when we first begin, but as Paul said, “…let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6.9)

Paul’s words in Philippians 3 also remind us, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

But, what about those results we are still, after progressing, are not seeing yet? Are you praying while you are “shaking the jar?”

Just a thought,

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Thanksgiving is a Life

Thanksgiving is a Life

Tomorrow, the majority of Americans will sit with family and friends around a table full of food that took hours to prepare and it will be eaten in less than twenty minutes. When many think of Thanksgiving, they think of a national holiday of turkey, stuffing/dressing, football and a long afternoon nap.

Thanksgiving goes beyond a holiday; it is a life.

Robert Louis Stevenson is credited with saying, “The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.” I believe Mr. Stevenson is accurate in his statement and it would do each of us good to reflect on his simple words. If one has reached a point where they are no longer thankful, in spite of circumstances, then maybe they are sleeping through life.

Among the lessons Viktor Frankl learned in the Nazi death-camp, Auschwitz, was to take time to be thankful and to count your blessings. He wrote that prisoners in the camp dreamed at night about a certain set of things more than anything else. Bread, cakes, and nice warm baths—the very things we take for granted every day.

Frankl said the prisoners around him began to appreciate beauty as never before. In one especially poignant paragraph, he wrote:

If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of our prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor—or maybe because of it—we were carried away by nature’s beauty, which we had missed for so long.[1]

How can you be thankful beyond a holiday?

  • Step back from the present circumstance and see the beauty of the world.
  • Remember, your God is the controller of the universe. (Romans 8.28)
  • Make a list of things to be thankful and focus on one each day.
  • Spend time in prayer. (1 Thessalonians 5.17)
  • Remember, you are going to heaven. (2 Timothy 4.6-8)

Just some thoughts,

 

 

 


[1] Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson’s complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed., p. 734). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.