Amish Cook: Giving Thanks

With an eye to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, Amish Cook Gloria Yoder devotes this week’s column to the idea of giving thanks. An excerpt:

No human being (or at least not me) is naturally filled with thankfulness.

There’s a person I know who has gone through more pain than any human could ever tell and more surgeries than I can count, and that individual is probably the one who stands out to me as the one who expresses gratitude more than anyone else I know.

Then there are those whom, even before greeting them, you know that they will have a negative to remark about it. No matter how beautiful the day is or how many blessings they have, the things that go wrong in their life splashes over others crossing their life.

Now think about it, no one on earth can make us the persons we will be in a year from now, whether thankful or ungrateful. It’s hard to comprehend.

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As my mind flashes to those I classify as having the hardest life and still wearing radiant expressions, I know that Christ within is the only way through the perils that life hurls our way. How can I be anchored deeply enough that I will not be overtaken no matter what? I am reminded of someone more mature than I, who shared with me the power of simply being aware of all thoughts that cross our minds. If it’s a thought that won’t build me up, it needs to be replaced that very moment with something that takes me in the direction I want to go. At first, it was too simple to grasp how profound it was. With time it becomes a new habit that fills my heart with joy.

Gloria has had an especially challenging year with the loss of her husband Daniel, which she talks about in this column.

Keeping perspective and staying minded towards giving thanks must be especially difficult. I admire and appreciate the example Gloria provides in her writings, this only being one example of that. Read the column in full here. She includes a recipe this week for Caramelized Baked Apples.