Thirty Days of Thankfulness - Day Four

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Today, I am thankful for my Bible.  I remember the first "real" Bible I ever owned.  It was a present from my older sister for Christmas in 1980. That Bible carried me many miles.  I used it for many years, Sunday Schools, innumerable sermons, sword drills, teen camps and conferences, Bible classes, even Bible college.  I love that Bible.  I have underlined special verses.  I have written in the margins.  I have cried over it's pages tears of conviction, repentance, forgiveness, longing and love.  It is very special to me. I retired it to a study Bible only when I got married, and wanted a Bible with my married name on the cover. We've been married 16 years, and the "new" one, still doesn't have the broken in feeling that I love about the "old" one.  But it is getting there.

Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Yet more important than the fact that I am thankful for the actual Bibles (yes, that is plural, because I own several, plus I have my grandmother's, my mom's and my dad's), is the fact that I am thankful for EVERY word written on its pages.  I am thankful that God loved us enough to leave us His word, so that we might have it's guidance anytime we need or want it. I am thankful for the life changing lessons it provides.  I am thankful that I live in a country where I am free to own a Bible and read it without fear of being punished or persecuted.  I am thankful for people who risk their lives to get Bibles into the hands of those who can not legally go to a store and buy one for themselves. I can not even fathom what it would be like to live in a country where reading the Bible is against the law.

Psalms 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

Today, I am thankful for my most prized earthly possesion, and that is my Bible.