{"id":14252,"date":"2025-11-23T23:32:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T03:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14252"},"modified":"2025-11-23T23:34:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T03:34:47","slug":"thanksgiving-psalm-for-a-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14252","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving Psalm for a New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s Thanksgiving week! So that seems like a good time to write a Thanksgiving psalm.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving Psalms don’t have a hard-and-fast form. But they do usually include these elements:<\/p>\n

1) Call to Praise
\n2) \u201cI Was in Trouble\u201d
\n3) \u201cI Called\u201d
\n4) \u201cGod Answered\u201d
\n5) Response of Praise<\/p>\n

This is different from the general Psalms of Praise – these talk about a specific time when God helped.<\/p>\n

As for my subject? Well, it dawned on me a couple days ago that this month marks 20 years since my then-husband moved out and left me and 15 years since my divorce was final.<\/p>\n

And life is very good.<\/p>\n

So let me try a Thanksgiving psalm about the way God has been with me and reshaped my life, twenty years later.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness;
\nthank you for your mercy.
\nThank you for always bringing good out of bad
\nand joy out of mourning.
\nThank you for all the beautiful gifts
\nthat would never have come my way
\nif life had gone as I’d planned.<\/p>\n

My mother was a stay-at-home Mom,
\nand that was my own ambition, too.
\nSure, I wanted to be a writer.
\nYes, I loved working part-time at the library.
\nBut having a career had never really entered my head.
\n(Not to mention that I was in love with my husband
\nand was happy to follow where his career took him.)<\/p>\n

So when it all fell apart
\nand dissolved between my grasping fingers –
\nit was hard to imagine being happy again.<\/p>\n

I did cry out to you, Lord!
\nEvery day my prayer came before you.
\nMy requests probably weren’t wise;
\nI didn’t know what was best.
\nI asked for my husband to return.
\nI wanted the life back that I’d thought I had.<\/p>\n

But you, Lord, answered
\nin ways I’d never imagined.
\nFather and Mother of my soul,
\nyou knew what I needed better than I did myself.
\nYou gave me a career,
\none suited exactly to me,
\nthat brought joy to my heart
\nand even touched kids’ lives.<\/p>\n

I got to serve on award committees,
\nhighlighting great books.
\nI got a position even more suited
\nto my abilities and inclinations.<\/p>\n

And that’s only the framework;
\nthere’s been so much more.
\nI was in so much financial trouble as a single Mom –
\nyou brought me out of it.
\nI’m far from family –
\nyou’ve given me dear friends from many different places.
\nI’ve had severe health problems (that stroke was no joke)
\nyou gave me folks looking out for me.<\/p>\n

I have a job I love,
\na small group who cares,
\nmy debts paid off,
\na website that people appreciate,
\na book that touches lives,
\nopportunities to travel,
\na choir to sing with,
\na beautiful place to walk,
\nand so many reasons for Joy.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was walking by my lake
\nenjoying the sun that had come out, shining on the water,
\nwhen the great blue heron plopped down
\nnear the path ahead of me,
\nas if begging to have a portrait shoot.
\nI was happy to oblige!<\/p>\n

A funny little thing like that
\nis common in my life now.
\nBut may it never cease to make me smile
\nand bring me joy
\nand remind me how rich and full
\nis this new life you’ve given me.<\/p>\n

It’s nothing I dreamed of
\nbut it has joys I never imagined.<\/p>\n

Father, some changes are looming now;
\nit’s possible I’m on the brink of a new phase of life.
\nI got some bad health news
\nof a chronic illness that will mean some life changes.
\nAnd my adult daughter will be staying with me,
\nperhaps for a couple weeks,
\nperhaps a month,
\nperhaps longer.<\/p>\n

Let this be a reminder
\nthat I’m incredibly bad at envisioning the future.
\nLife is all about change
\nand things don’t stay the same.<\/p>\n

But you are with me.
\nAnd you continually give me good and perfect gifts.
\nYou do immeasurably more
\nthan all we ask or imagine.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Father!
\nMay your Name be praised.<\/p>\n

Here’s to life with You.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Thanksgiving week! So that seems like a good time to write a Thanksgiving psalm. Thanksgiving Psalms don’t have a hard-and-fast form. But they do usually include these elements: 1) Call to Praise 2) \u201cI Was in Trouble\u201d 3) \u201cI Called\u201d 4) \u201cGod Answered\u201d 5) Response of Praise This is different from the general Psalms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-praying-with-the-psalmists","category-thanksgiving-psalms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14255,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14252\/revisions\/14255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}