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Thanksgiving is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada where family and friends get together to celebrate love, friendship and the blessings of the past year. It is truly my favorite holiday and oh how I love being with my family on this special day. It’s been a while since we all have spent Thanksgiving together, but there is still so much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving allows us to reflect on all the wondrous things that took place in our lives. God has truly blessed me and my family in 2019. For one, we are all still here and that in itself is enough to get up and do the hallelujah dance for. Even though my beloved eldest son is no longer with us, he is with us daily in our hearts so I say we are all still here.

I thank God for His grace and His mercies. I thank God that I’m surrounded by family and friends who love me. God has been good to me, so good that sometimes I cry because he loves me so much. While 2019 was a great year, it was also filled with challenges and changes, some good, some not so good, but all beneficial in allowing me to grow. I thank God that through all the challenges (hospitalizations, illness, some sadness) that His love covered me like a warm blanket on a chilly day.

Jesus, You are so worth praising and like the saying goes, if You never do another thing for me, You have done enough.

I love You Lord and I truly thank You for allowing me to have another Thanksgiving. Thank You Father for keeping Your hands on me, my family and my friends. You are absolutely amazing.

I pray you all had a wonderful time with family and friends and even if it didn’t turn out the way you hoped or planned for it to turn out, what a blessing that through it all God was there to cover you like a warm blanket on a chilly day.

Psalm 107:1, 8–9: Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Be blessed in Jesus’ name.

Mary Simmons is a columnist for The Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch. She can be reached at Marysimmons6@hotmail.com.