Spanky's Place

• I am thankful for my family. My parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles have all been wonderful gifts to me. They have helped me grow into the person I am today; and they have loved me along the (sometimes very rocky) road my life has taken to get me here. God has blessed Tanya and I with two wonderful, beautiful children. They are my greatest treasure; and my greatest responsibility. I thank God for giving them to me; even more so I thank God for entrusting them unto me. For truthfully they are his children first; the fact that he has blessed me with them is an awesome responsibility.
• I am thankful for my friends. I have been blessed with wonderful friends; both close and distant. They have given me wise council, shoulders to cry on, simple pleasure in their company, and even the occasional kick in the ass when I needed it. While I truly love and treasure my Christian friends; I think I am most thankful for my non-Christian friends. They accept me as a friend -even though they know how strongly I believe in Christ. Through my friendship with them I am given the opportunity to demonstrate that not all Bible believing Christians are intolerant asses. Christians take note: The Bible is not to be used as a bludgeon. You cannot bring somebody to salvation through condemnation; those two things are mutually exclusive.
  
  "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." -Matthew 7:3-5.
  
  My job is not to save the souls of my non-Christian friends -any man who thinks he can save another person is mistaken; for that is God's job. My responsibility to my non-Christian friends is to love them as Jesus loves me. If they stumble I will help them stand. If they seek I will help them find. If they ask I will teach. I will demonstrate through the way I live my life what it means to be a Christian. But most importantly I will love them. For that opportunity, I am thankful.
• I am thankful for my work. I have been blessed in that I get to do something I very much enjoy for a living. I recognize how lucky I am. I love my work, I am good at what I do, and I am blessed enough to be able earn a (by some standards) very good living doing it. Very few people get to love their work.
• I am thankful for my opportunities. I am blessed in that I am lucky enough to choose my path in life. I have been presented with so many opportunities to pick from that I am sometimes overwhelmed by all of it. Life has been very good for me.
• I am thankful for my sorrows. I have also had very sad or rough times, yet I am thankful for them as well. These times have made me a stronger person, and a better Christian. An example of this is something that happened to me back in 2000: I was laid off just three weeks before Christmas. At the time it was a terrible, terrifying, scary, and stressful thing. But with the help of God, my family, my church, and my friends I made it through -and I'm a better person for it today. Looking back on it; this was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me.
• I am thankful for my country. I am blessed enough to live in a country where I can profess my beliefs without fear. I can talk to people about God and Jesus without worrying about being imprisoned or killed. I can disagree with my government -even protest loudly should I choose; without fear. I can burn the flag (I wouldn't mind you -but I can), dance in the streets, vote for who I want, worship my God, argue with my friends, drink with my enemies, help the helpless, say "Fuck" in public, and generally make as big an ass of myself as I choose. The United States of America may have some faults; but the simple fact of the matter is that this is the greatest country the world has ever known. I am lucky enough to be a United States citizen -and for that I am truly grateful.

Well, I think I have gone on quite enough for now. There are many other things I am thankful for; but for now, this list will do. I sincerely hope that God blesses you all as He has blessed me. More importantly; I hope you all are able to see His glory and His purpose in your own lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!