A Mothers Day Tribute To My Wife And Others Like Her

There is one person in your church who knows your preacher’s life.

She’s wept and smiled and prayed for him, and that is your preacher’s wife.

She knows your prophet’s weakest point and knows his greatest power.

She’s heard him speak in trumpet tone, in his greatest triumph hour.

She’s heard him groaning in his soul when bitter raged the strife.

As hand in hand she knelt with him— for she’s your preacher’s wife.

The crowd has seen him in his strength when glistening his drawn sword.

As underneath God’s banner folds he faced the devil’s horde.

But she knows deep within her heart that scarce an hour before.

She helped him pray for strength from God behind a closed door

You tell your tales of prophets brave, who walked across the world,

And changed the course of history by burning words they hurled,

And I will tell how back of them some women lived their lives,

Who wept with them and smiled with them—they were the preacher’s wives.

- Author Unknown

Why We Should Have Thanksgiving

Many in Australia may not know that the primary and most widely celebrated family holiday in America is Thanksgiving Day. It is the day that everyone who is anyone would like to go back to his or her roots and spend the day enjoying a special traditional home cooked Thanksgiving meal with their family. No matter how far one roams from the land of his birth, this remains the case. As one with this heritage, I would like to share with you some facts about this special day and its origins. In 1621 a little band of pilgrims, who had fled the religious persecution of an established church and sought religious freedom in a new world, paused in their struggle for survival to feast and give thanks to God for His blessings upon them. They feasted and gave thanks, in spite of the fact thatthe hardships involved in hewing a haven with their bare hands from the somber, granite hills of Plymouth, had already taken the heavy toll of half their number. Their meal was sparse. It primarily consisted of such things as native turkey, maize, pumpkin and cranberries; food the native Indian tribes had shown them how to gather and prepare. It is said that when they sat down for that first Thanksgiving meal they found five kernels of corn on each plate. This served as a reminder of the hardships they had endured during the previous year when rations had been reduced to five kernels of corn for each person each day.

A little over 150 years later, in 1789, George Washington, the first President of the new nation, issued this national proclamation of Thanksgiving, “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favour . . .etc..” Some seventy-five years later President Abraham Lincoln made and proclaimed the last Thursday of November a perpetual national Day of Thanksgiving. Even though the nation had just lost over a million of her sons in an awful and deadly civil war, the aftermath of which would soon take the President’s own life, there was still much for which to be thankful. Those of us who have the blessings of freedom today also have much to be thankful for. We should give thanks for the grace of God. “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” (Psalm 95:1)

We should give thanks for the greatness of God. “For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:3)

We should give thanks for the goodness of God. Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)

We should give thanks for the gift of God. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." (II Cor. 9:15)