The Cup of Thanksgiving

"Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf."

~ 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

"One Bread, One Body"

by John Michael Talbot

One bread, one body, One Lord of all,
One cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
We are one body in this one Lord.

Gentile or Jew, Servant or free,
Woman or man, No more.

One bread, one body, One Lord of all,
One cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
We are one body in this one Lord.

Many the gifts, Many the works,
One in the Lord, Of all.

One bread, one body, One Lord of all,
One cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
We are one body in this one Lord.

1. New Perspectives = I like one of Mark Lowry's comments about a commenter's gratitude on his Facebook wall -- the commenter's gratitude was -- "I'm grateful for laundry and dishes. . . they never go away . . . talk about job security." and Mark's reply -- "That's a good way to look at a problem . . . from a new perspective."  And that's what gratitude is -- looking at things from a new perspective. Instead of griping about having to pick up my husband's dirty pants from a chair in the living room and new cups that multiply in my kitchen sink like rabbits, thank God you've got job security as a wife and mother! Knock, Knock! You hear me, Dolores? This message is for you! 👼 smile!

2. Cinderella = I'm so thankful for romantic reminders,  cause I met my Prince Charming on a blind date too and we've been married for 35 years! 

3.  Friends = I'm so thankful for my friend Karen, who loves to delight me with things she knows I will like. She just dropped off not one, but TWO Mary Engelbreit calendars! WOW! And some tea sachets (envelopes). Do you know of any clubs like this one? (By the way, heard that Karen's daughter-in-grace has had a grand stork delivery this morning! Congrats, everybody!)

4. Elementary School = I'm thankful I didn't have to go to school where the teachers were armed or guards patrolled the school hallways. The principal I had though, had been in the army and I heard tales that she ran the school like a drill sergeant. My mother always told me, if you get in trouble at school, you are going to be in trouble when you get home and let me tell you, I had that the fear of that double trouble to keep me controlled for years. smile! That is, until 5th grade, when there was a group of kids, one girl in particular, K.B., who took great delight in tormenting me out on the playground. She was so mean to me, that one day she slammed a hard basketball straight into my face, just cause she felt like it, knocking my glasses off and making my nose bleed. I ran for the teacher playground monitor and this girl taunted me the whole way there behind my back about being a crybaby and a tattletale.

You see, my parents also told me, if someone is pestering you, go stand in the teacher's zone -- the five foot area around her is her trouble-free zone, because the brat who is bothering you doesn't want to draw attention to himself and therefore get into trouble, however, if they have hurt you, tell the teacher, especially if they draw blood, like the girl did to me above. If you can't get justice from the teacher, go higher up or come tell me and let me take care of it. I remember one time when my mother had to take up my cause with a teacher and that concerned the correct spelling of my first name.

So at that point, I didn't care about the name-calling, cause man, I was hurting, inside and out.  Problem was, the teacher didn't "see" the bully, only me as someone trying to get her into trouble [she was not my class teacher, so she really didn't know me. She was taking her turn at being the playground monitor that day.] I ran inside without permission when I could see it was useless to try to get justice from her, straight for my classroom to clean up and cry. But the teacher followed me inside and tried to march me down to the principal's office. I refused to budge out of my seat, so she grabbed me around the trunk of my body and tried to haul me down there herself, however as she scuffled me out towards the hallway, I grabbed the door jamb and wouldn't let go. When she could not pull me out of the doorway, she let go and went to get the principal herself. Mrs. R. came marching down to the classroom and I went meek as a lamb with her. The principal couldn't understand why that teacher was having such trouble with me since I walked down to her office readily enough. The principal called my mother to come to get me, so I could get cleaned up and sometime after that is when the school recommended an off-campus counselor to my parents for my "social issues." 

By the way, I forgive you K.B.! 

Never once did I ever think to go shoot somebody because I was bullied at school. I had not only the fear of my parents controlling my actions, but also the fear of jail. I knew what was right and wrong. Perhaps fear or respect has been removed from consciences and the finger of blame for OUR actions points somewhere else.  Like children, when people are caught in a compromising position, they want to weasel out of and deflect what they've done onto somebody else, instead of owning up to it. Even Adam did that, by blaming Eve for his eating of the apple! 

"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." ~ Ephesians 4:18. 

I think that describes our public schooled students right there perfectly. A few individuals in America jumped on the collective bandwagon to take teaching Godly living out of our public schools in the 1960's and sadly, some of the children, especially the unchurched ones after that, have become ignorant about how to live civilly with each other. I know,  as I'm a product of a public-school, peer-ruled education. It didn't get better when our son went to public-school and we removed him after 4th grade to teach him at home.

I think America is reaping what America sowed in the 60's. 

"After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel." ~ Judges 2:10. 

5. Garments of Praise! = I didn't realize just how many people it takes to produce the clothing I'm wearing today (shirt, dress, sweater, undergarments, leggings, socks, and house-slippers) until I watched this video! 

God, I have no idea who designed and produced the clothes I'm wearing today, but you do! Please bless them today, whatever their need. I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen! 

6. Come and Dine! = Periodically my husband's employer plans social events for his employees and last Friday evening we enjoyed one. (Thank you, Prier!) Well, my husband bowled and I didn't as I'm the reigning gutter queen♛♕ in the family, so instead I socialized with the gal who cooks for their learn at lunch meetings. She said she would send me some recipes that sweetens with dates instead of refined sugar. She recommended I look online at one and texted the recipe link to me that evening. I haven't tried it yet, I need to go get the ingredients, but thought you wouldn't mind if I shared it with you ahead of time. If you try it, come back and share with me what you think of it.  It looks yummy! 

I did mention a couple of posts ago that I don't cook with salt anymore, however, the cornmeal mush I had for breakfast needed just a pinch of salt, so I used this product to give it some salt flavoring -- "No Salt! A Sodium-Free Salt Alternative." My doctor that I had at the time said that most foods have naturally embedded salt or added salt and all we need is 1 teaspoon of iodized salt a day to maintain our health and most of the time we get way more than that in the American diet. To be considered a low sodium food, it must be lower than 150 mg. per serving. I also use a "No Salt Seasoning" that I purchase in Big Lots grocery department. Mrs. Dash's No Salt Seasoning is too spicy (peppery) for me and I found this to be the perfect substitute! Apparently though, it looks like I'm going to have to find a substitute for this too, as it has sugar in it. :( No wonder it tastes so good!