Many of us will celebrate Thanksgiving Day this week. It’s a bittersweet day for some of us because of losses and brokenness.
I read a post last week by Molly Huggins, and it deeply touched me. I can’t ignore the God-nudge to share it with you. May it help us remember God’s mercy and grace stands sure, no matter how broken our families, this world, or our own hearts are.
I hope you will take time to read Molly’s post. Here are three quotes that especially speak to me. What speaks to your heart?
“A sacrifice of thanksgiving means grieving what could have been while remaining grateful for what is.”
“His covenant of mercy and grace is as sure as the covenant of day. He is faithful in our loss. He is faithful in our fear. He is faithful in our grief.”
“And on this Thanksgiving Day, and all the others before and after, I will sing a sacrifice of praise and thanks, a bittersweet response to the mercy we’ve been shown. A grief-tinged, grace-laced hallelujah chorus of my own.”
May we join her hallelujah, my friends, not only this Thanksgiving Day (here in the USA), but each and every day.
“Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for His mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness!
I say: The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in Him”.
Lamentations 3:21-24
“Our Lord and God,
You are worthy to receive
glory and honor and power,
because You have created all things,
and because of Your will
they exist and were created.”
Revelation 4:11
“Broken Hallelujah”
by Mandisa
“With my love and my sadness
I come before You Lord
My heart’s in a thousand pieces
Maybe even more
Yet I trust in this moment You’re with me somehow
And You’ve always been faithful so Lord even now
When all that I can sing is a broken Hallelujah
When my only offering is shattered praise
Still a song of adoration will rise up from these ruins
And I will worship You and give You thanks
Even when my only praise is a broken Hallelujah…”
Freed to Fly 
May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, Trudy, seeing His faithfulness shining through and His mercies that never end! Hugs!
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Thank you, Lynn. I pray the same for you! May His mercies and faithfulness shine through and help you to work through the fresh grief in your heart! Hugs to you, too!
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Oh Trudy, I read that post last week, and felt the blessing of it also! Thank you for re-posting it here, and adding your beautiful thoughts and Scriptures too. I’m so grateful that our Lord makes a way for us to offer our Praise to Him no matter how deep the darkness feels around us. What a beautiful song by Mandisa also. Our Lord is so tender with us in the hard places, and He knows how to draw us into His embrace there! Blessings and Hugs to you this Thanksgiving, Dear Friend!
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“I’m so grateful that our Lord makes a way for us to offer our Praise to Him no matter how deep the darkness feels around us.” Me, too, Bettie! Yes, He is so tender with us in the hard places. It’s amazing how much He holds us up, isn’t it? May our brokenness drive us closer to His embrace, not away from it! Thanksgiving blessings and hugs to you, too, my friend!
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Thanks for sharing this, Trudy! I loved reading Molly’s post and I loved the song too. I need to get more familiar with Mandisa’s music. I hadn’t even heard of her until recently but lately a few people have mentioned different songs of hers and I have liked them all! Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!
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Mandisa has been through a lot and has such meaningful songs. Three other of her songs I especially love are “Stronger,” “Overcomer,” and “Unfinished.” Happy Thanksgiving Day to you, too. I know you don’t have it there, but every day is one, right? May we daily remember that even through our struggles, God’s mercies are never-ending!
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Trudy, what meaningful quotes from Molly Huggins. This one stood out to me: ““His covenant of mercy and grace is as sure as the covenant of day. He is faithful in our loss. He is faithful in our fear. He is faithful in our grief.”
I’m so thankful for God’s faithfulness toward us. And the fact that He never leaves or forsakes us, especially in our pain and loss.
And Mandisa–man, her music speaks hope and overcoming and truth, doesn’t it?
Have a beautiful Thanksgiving, my friend!
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I love that quote, too, Jeanne. It’s amazing how faithful God is, isn’t it? I need to remember more often that He is with us even in pain and loss. Yes, Mandisa’s songs are so hope-filled. One can really tell she has personally experienced both pain and wonderful grace. May we with her and others sing our Hallelujahs in the midst of our brokenness! I hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving, too, my friend!
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What a beautiful and uplifting perspective you demonstrate here in spite of the grief this world brings! You are truly a blessing to all who grieve and are particularly reminded of their heartaches during the holidays! I love your compassionate heart. I pray I can offer grace and hope as you do… as our Savior does. Thank you for this inspiring post! I’m off to read Molly’s post now. Happy Thanksgiving week, Trudy! ❤ and hugs!
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Thank you for your loving encouragement, Lynn. Thanksgiving hugs back to you! I’m so grateful you were inspired. Molly’s post really resonated with me. It’s well worth reading. Oh, Lynn, you don’t realize how very much you offer grace and hope as our Savior does. Every time I read your posts or comments, I thank God for how He recently brought you here during the night when you couldn’t sleep. He blesses me because of you. 🙂 May we thank Him who cares for us so much and is so worthy to be praised!
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Trudy, thank you for introducing us to Molly’s post. It’s a beautiful, encouraging, life affirming read from one who has suffered such loss and pain. This line, especially, spoke to me: “A sacrifice of thanksgiving means grieving what could have been while remaining grateful for what is.” Maybe because a part of me still grieves the life that could have been if certain experiences hadn’t come my way.
Although from the perspective of years, I deeply appreciate how much God has given me strength and insight to live like an overcomer, even if I don’t feel like one! And the grieving process is a necessary part of being enabled to move forward to become all God intends us to. We resist it to our detriment. Bless you for this lovely, hopeful post, Mandisa’s beautiful song, and gently raising awareness of how many struggle in this season. I hope and pray your Thanksgiving Day has been blessed with good things. Love and hugs! xo ❤
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Thank you, Joy. Love and hugs to you, too! That line especially grabbed me, too, and is still running through my head and my heart. Her post really resonated with me. And so do your words. A part of me keeps grieving, too, for what could have been if those experiences hadn’t come my way. And yet, as you say, too, I deeply appreciate how much God has given me. We could never have survived to this moment without Him, could we? And even with chronic illness, there is grief for what could be if we were full of health and energy. And yet God gives His sufficient grace, doesn’t He? May we pour out our grief to God and lean into the joy of being His beloved!
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Yes, I can also identify with the sense of loss an adjustment to chronic illness brings. Having to give up my career in nursing was what first prompted me to see a Christian counsellor. Little did I know how God would use the years ahead to show me how to deal with my painful past as well. It really does help to have the benefit of hindsight, and learning to live as God’s beloved enables us to live more content in every way. xo 😊💟
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I’m so sorry you had to give up nursing, Joy. That truly must have been hard. But yes, it does really help to have that benefit of hindsight! I’m so glad God led you to deal with your painful past. Now you can point us to the same hope God gave you! 🙂 Love and hugs!
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Hi Trudy! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration my friend. Even when we have broken halleujah’s to offer, God still loves them. He knows how we struggle and struggle. And still he is there, helping all to come back to him in faith.
May we always offer our thanks in everything, knowing he makes all things new and beautiful,
Ceil
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It’s amazing how God still loves even our broken hallelujah’s, isn’t it? Thank you for your encouraging thoughts about our ever-present God who knows and cares about our struggles, Ceil. According to your comment at Linda’s, it sounds like you had a busy week with some very young grandkids. 🙂 Such precious memories, right? We had our family gathering on Saturday. At one point, our nearly 1-1/2 year-old great-grandson was sitting on his mom’s lap playing with toys on the tabletop. He had a little temper tantrum when something didn’t go his way. His parents said, “Do you need a time-out?” He pushed his toys away from himself towards his dad and sat there for a bit. I was amazed. My granddaughter said, “Yes, he knows what that means. At home he sits in a little chair until he calms down.” They can learn so young, can’t they? 🙂 Yes, may we offer our thanks to our God who makes all things new and beautiful!
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