Praising God for Who He Is

While thanking and praising God, I often find myself thanking Him for what He has done and for what He has given to me. I am so extremely blessed....physically and Spiritually! I have a wonderful husband, four precious children, an awesome extended family and many dear friends. I lack nothing physically speaking. The Lord has supplied all of my needs. And he deserves all of my praise and thanks!

As the children and I were reading together this morning from Lessons From the Farmyard by Emilie Poulsson, I was again reminded of the fact that (and I quote) "The Lord would be worthy of our praise and adoration even if He never created a wonderful world or saved a guilty soul." And this is so true. God is GOOD. It is His very nature. "Far too often, we permit our attitude of gratitude to slip away because we perceive that God is not giving us all the physical blessing we think we deserve."

Hymn of Thanksgiving

For the blessings of the field,
For the stores the gardens yield,
For the vine's exalted juice,
For the generous olive's use;

Flocks that whiten all the plain,
Yellow sheaves of ripened grain,
Clouds that drop their fattening dews,
Suns that temperate warmth diffuse;

All that Spring, with bounteous hand,
Scatters o'er the smiling land;
All that liberal Autumn pours
From her rich o'erflowing stores;

These to Thee, my God, we owe--
Source whence all our blessings flow!
And for these my soul shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise.

Yet should rising whirlwinds tear
From its stem the ripening ear,
Should the fig tree's blasted shoot
Drop her green untimely fruit--

Should the vine put forth no more,
Nor the olive yield her store,
Though the sickening flocks should fall,
And the herds desert the stall--

Should thine altered hand restrain
The early and the latter rain,
Blast each opening bud of joy,
And the rising year destroy--

Yet to Thee my soul should raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise,
And, when every blessing's flown,
Love Thee - for Thyself alone.
~~Anna Loetitla Barbauld