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Thursday, September 23, 2021

[Thanksgiving Prayer]

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people

2 Timothy 2:1

In his letter to Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to make petition, prayer, intercession and thanksgiving for all people.  

Prayer is an important part of Christianity especially when you pray for others.  

I pray for other people.  I pray for my family, my church, and my friends.  I have prayer group where moms pray for our kids and their schools.  So when I read this verse, I thought my prayer life was a ok.

But then I came across the word "thanksgiving".  I asked myself whether or not I give thanksgiving for the people I pray for.  I specifically thought about one of my son.  Since he left church, I pray that he will recover his first love with God and that he will meet believing friends on campus.  But did I ever pray a prayer of thanksgiving for him?  I wondered.

I realized that all of my prayer for him has been for God to change him so that he will go to church and that he will live a Christian life.  I don't think I made a thanksgiving prayer for him.

So, this morning I thanked God for all the ways that I was thankful for.  I thanked God for his personality, his ability to walk and talk when he was a baby, his curiosity, his social skills (he used to talk so much that he used to sit by himself in kindergarten), his people skills, his diligence, and his independence.

Today happened to be his first day of school as he transferred to a 4 year university.  To show my gratitude I left a special egg and avocado toast on the kitchen table and sent him money through online banking.