Give Thanks

Every Thanksgiving for as many years as I can remember, my mother had a tradition at Thanksgiving dinner. After my father prayed over the food, my mother asked each of us to name one thing that had happened in the last year that we were thankful for. As I got older, knowing that I would have to state what I was grateful for, I started thinking about the year a couple of weeks in advance of the holiday, and I found that even in difficult years, I had a lot to be thankful for. My mother's tradition, which she continues to this day, has helped me to really think about the meaning of Thanksgiving each year.

As I look back on the changes since I wrote the Thanksgiving post last, year 2015 has been a mixed bag.  Dallas is on a rapid growth track and that brings both opportunities and challenges for those of us who live here.  Frontier 2000 Media Group is now five and a half years old, has published a dozen titles and we are now launching our most exciting project yet--more on that in the upcoming weeks. Nationally, the elections last year which gave conservatives the Senate did not prove to be the victory I had hoped as the GOP did not swerve from its amazing ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  In Texas, however, Greg Abbott has not disappointed and has done an amazing job as governor.  All in all, we are better off than we were. So in that spirit, I record a few things that we can be thankful for this year.

1.  The Tea Party is alive and well (along with the desire for freedom and liberty that gave birth to it.)  The interest in the GOP debates--along with the absolute boredom with the Democrat frontrunners, shows me that there is real interest in the party.  We have a chance to make a difference in 2016 like never before.

Although the media has long tried to pretend that the Tea Party is nothing more than a phony "astro-turf" movement, the mid-term elections show something quite different.  Americans who care about the size and growth of government are making their voices heard and we are making a difference.

2. Although there is much horror in the world--and we saw it clearly last week in Paris--there is also still a strong desire for freedom.  In America people ARE waking up to real threats from ISIS and other terrorists and saying "no more".  While we pray for the victims of the shooting last week, we also recognize that a good offense is always the best defense.

3. The GOP field continues to narrow and as it does, the cream is rising. Ted Cruz is an amazing candidate.  I have heard him speak twice in person now and I am always amazed by how compelling he is.  For those of you who have not heard him, please go listen in person.  You need to hear him make a case for freedom himself.

4. We have a little less than fifteen months left in the Obama Administration.  To those of us who have struggled every day of the last seven years, this alone is cause for celebration.  2016 is our chance for a national do-over and we need to make sure we elect a candidate who respects and defends the Constitution.  Our individual futures and our future as a nation depends on it.

5. Wherever we are in this country and in our lives, we are still alive, and we are not alone! "Don't worry about things--food, drink and clothes. For you already have life and a body--and they are more important than what to eat and what to wear. Look at the birds! They don't worry about what to eat--they don't need to sow or reap or store up food--for your heavenly Father feeds them...And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies! They don't worry about theirs. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't He more surely care for you....So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time." (Matthew 6: 25-34 TLB)

Now that's something we can be thankful for every day! Happy Thanksgiving.

Alexandra Swann is the author of No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned me a Master's Degree at Age Sixteen and several other books. Her novel, The Planner about an out of control, environmentally-driven federal government, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net.