Happy Thanksgiving!

I just got home from a wonderful Thanksgiving service at church! Congregation was really small (8 people), but it was great to hear the word of God, and all verses of giving thanks. I wanted to share them with you.

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good he has given you. Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today.
--Deuteronomy 8:7-11

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When Iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with our bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. --Psalm 65:1-13

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he was them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And then he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." --Luke 17:11-19

These verses were so inspiring to me! And our priest gave us a very interesting idea for Thanksgiving: try and notice all the little things people do for you tomorrow, even the guy in the car who lets you cross the street before he keeps driving! And give thanks to God, of course, for all the blessings you have. I am blessed to have a very good church, wonderful and supportive family members, encouraging friends who are devoted to Christ like I am, great teachers and an excellent education, for so many opportunities for me to experience the world (dance, swimming, speech, music, and church), and to be blessed with little things I quite often take for granted, like a phone, computer, electricity, heat (I take that for granted a lot, especially being from a place where I wear a snow jacket more than I wear a sundress!), a bed, clothing, food, clean water, and even the pencils I use to underline important Bible verses! What are you thankful for? Tell me about it!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Love,
Kayla

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

I'll share something with all of you: I sometimes wonder why God made me with high blood sugar and low Vitamin D. It may sound weird, but I get really sick pretty easily. The other day when my levels were acting up, I had to go to the doctor. I knew it would involve shots and needles (which I hate) so I was praying and reading my Bible to calm down, and I read the verses I needed.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 talk about how God made us perfectly and put us in the exact spot we need to be to fulfill His plans for the world. (It's a long verse, so look it up in your Bible at home and read it, then read my post to know what I'm talking about :)) Imagine if our nose was on our arms and our hands on our face. It would not go well at all! We would probably all have broken noses from whacking our arms (if you're anything like me and can trip over a cordless telephone sitting on a table) and our eyes would be poked out from trying to grab things with our face! Or what if our entire body was just an eye? We couldn't enjoy the sounds, tastes, and feeling of the world around us! Or if something really small went away, like our toes. They seem meaningless, but without them we couldn't walk!
Every part of our body is placed where it is for a purpose and function important to the rest of the body. How is that any different than God placing us in a certain state, family, or whatever other situation you can think of? So God gave me the trials of dealing with crazy blood to be able to testify to working hard and pushing through trials to get to a great point in life where you feel great for 1) doing something amazing and 2) knowing you kept faith through trials and tribulations, then getting to give all the glory to Christ! How cool is that?
Do you have a cool story or testimony related to this? Send it to me at missionfaithblog@gmail.com!

And don't forget to like the Mission: Faith Facebook page and follow @Mission_Faith on Twitter!

Love y'all!

Kayla

I promise!

Okay, so I haven't been able to write in a long time, but I PROMISE I am working on a really great article on 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. If you want to read it so you know what I'm working on, go ahead and you can give me ideas on what to write! I love you guys so much, and thanks for passing this on, sharing testimonies and stories, and everything! You're always welcome to contact me at missionfaithblog@gmail.com for a prayer request, testimony, question, or anything else. Like our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter!

God bless!
Kayla