I love this time of year. It's so beautiful, with all the vibrant colors of red, orange and yellow. I love to see frost on the ground in the morning and on the mountain that's behind our house. Yahweh was so creative when he made the seasons! I think that Fall is my favorite season, and can you blame me? It's so amazing to watch leaves turn from green to orange! What a wonderful creator we have!

Not only is Autumn one of the most beautiful times of the year, it also brings many other good things... Thanks Giving is one of them! I love Thanks Giving... It's one of my favorite times of the year! Mashed potatoes, turkey, rolls, stuffing... oh, the list never ends. As much as I enjoy Thanks Giving dinner, the point on the holiday is not the food, even though it may seem like it. The point is to simply...

Give Thanks!

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Yeshua Messiah. 
1 Thess. 5:16-18

Give thanks in all circumstances! That means that even when hard times come we need to be praising Yahweh and thanking Him for his goodness and his mercy! This can even relate to my post earlier about counting it all joy, found in James 1:2-4...

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

It's not the exact same verse that's found in 1 Thessalonians, but I think that they are closely related to each other, since both authors of both books served the same king, Yeshua, and both verses say to be joyful always and to consider it all joy when you encounter various trials.

Anyways, during this time, since I'm already thinking about Thanks Giving day that's coming up faster than we realize, my mind is always filled up with things that I'm thankful for, especially coming out of the Fall Feasts. I decided that starting this Thursday, the twenty-third of October, I'm going to start writing things that I'm thankful for down from the twenty-third to Thanks Giving Day, November 27, without writing the same thing down more than once! And...... (Drum roll....) I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to try to post them every Thursday. If you like, you can comment and post some things that you're thankful for, to! 

Even if you don't comment, I encourage you to do this challenge on your own. I know that I'm not short of things that I'm thankful for, and I know that you aren't, either. You should be thankful every day all the time, even if you don't think about it. When you flip on a light switch and it doesn't come on, what do you feel like? Do you feel slightly irritated that you now have to go find a new light bulb? I often do, which is something that I'm still working on. The point is we must give thanks in all circumstances! This  is an important thing for believers to learn, but I admit that giving thanks when everything bad is happening to you is very difficult and sometimes it seems impossible. But it's not!

For nothing is impossible with God. 
Luke 1:37

These are encouraging words. When terrible things happen to us, we have to remember three things...

1. Count it all joy
2. Give thanks in all circumstances
3. Yahweh is always there! 

Thanks for reading today! Please comment and tell me your thoughts!

Shalom!
Emma