Yesterday I gave thanks for the book Kisses From Katie. It is the story of a young woman, just 22 years old now, who went to Uganda after she graduated from high school. She established a ministry to help Ugandan children and became mommy to 14 little girls.

I took away so much from this book, but what impacted me most was the gratitude that overflowed from Katie’s heart onto the pages of her story. I read it electronically, so I searched the word thanks and its derivatives and found 82 instances of its use in just 264 pages. Ironic. In her book she describes scene after scene of filth, poverty, disease, and heartache. Each one worse than the last.

Yet each horrible instance provided a stark backdrop for love to be displayed. 
And for thanks giving.

Might thanks and all its derivatives likewise mark the pages of our lives.

“It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received.”
~H.E. Manning, Daily Strength for Daily Living

Marking my pages . .

254. peace in the morning
255. grey day
256. books
257. and candles

258. Mom & Dad’s arrival
259. and with it the beginning of the season
260. Joe getting it
261. if His eye is on the sparrow . .

262. Katie’s story (again)
263. beans and cornbread
264. cooler weather
265. and my favorite slippers

266. clean sheets
267. a call from a friend
268. timely words
269. feeling little
270. and less than
271. but enough
272. a son asking how he can pray for me
273. a patient husband
274. Em’s middle school Bible study
275. never being bored
276. bedtime