Dear Friend,
The subtitle of The Art of the Handwritten Note by Margaret Shepherd is A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communication! As grateful as we are for the immediacy of email and text, there is just something about the impact of one’s handwriting (even when, like mine, it’s often hard to decipher). Perhaps it’s because the time dedicated to writing a note gives one the opportunity to reflect on the person to whom they’re grateful. It is a worthwhile endeavor—and, if you’re like me, you will seldom retain an email, but you may treasure a personal card.
In a few weeks, those of us in the U.S. will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Finding more than a few passing minutes to reflect with grateful hearts on all that God has done for us may, like handwritten notes, be going the way of a lost art. Time dedicated to prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude can easily be swallowed up by all the hectic holiday planning and preparation.
The Psalms offer help in this regard. David’s poems and songs provide us with a good example to follow: remembering God’s faithfulness throughout the ages, proclaiming God’s glory in all of Creation, thanking God for answering personal needs and prayers, and committing to being a servant of the Lord by honoring God with everlasting praise. In Psalm 30:12, the author writes, “…O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
This is also a good pattern to share with your children—and if it’s been a while since you’ve read a psalm with them, Thanksgiving might be a great time to start.
One of our book offers this month may also be of interest to the younger children in your life. The book is titled Everyone a Child Should Know, and it profiles over 50 followers of Jesus throughout the ages, including Martin Luther, Amy Carmichael, Eric Liddell, and John Newton. It’s a follow-up to one of our previous offers, Everything a Child Should Know About God, which you may have ordered a couple years back. I commend it to you warmly.
Also, our offer at the beginning of the month, Is God Really in Control? by Jerry Bridges, relates to our program series Dangers, Toils and Snares. Always giving great insight, Jerry helps us think rightly about God’s sovereignty in the worst of times…even during tragedy. While we struggle to understand hardship from a human perspective, Is God Really in Control? gives us clarity and assurance that God is eternally in control of all things.
It’s simply not possible for this letter to come to you handwritten. But please know that it comes with all of the appreciation and gratefulness of a handwritten card to express my thanks for your partnership in Truth For Life. We could not bring the Good News that Jesus died for sinners to men and women around the world without you! Please be greatly encouraged to know that the hundreds of letters and emails that come in each month remind us that God is working through His Word, as heard on our program, to establish believers, strengthen local churches, and see unbelieving people becoming committed followers of Jesus Christ.
With my love in the Lord Jesus,
