Grateful for God’s Goodness to Us
Dawn and I were able to take a break during the week of Thanksgiving and the pause in our regular schedule gave me the opportunity to think about things that I’m truly grateful for.
One of the biggest reasons that I give thanks is for God’s goodness and His tender care for our family. This year he graced us with our first granddaughter. Who is truly angelic. Dawn and I both give thanks for how our Father is working in the life of David Jr. and Emily, as well as Jonathan and Hannah.
Another thing that I am thankful for is how God has graced us with a growing spiritual family. Dawn and I enjoy the privilege of being dad and mom, or papá and mamá to a number of the young people that our Papa God has brought into our lives. This reminds me that just a few months after Hannah moved to heaven some friends spoke into our lives and told us that they believed God has gifted Dawn and me to be a Mother and Father to others.
Redemption and Restoration through Family
This has been one of the ways the Lord has redeemed and restored what we’ve suffered. What we’ve lost. Not that these relationships can in anyway replace Hannah, but they do bring a measure of healing.
I feel proud as a Papá, and I enjoy being a dad to my own family as well as our spiritual family. I find great joy in these beautiful relationships. The wonderful thing about it is we mutually love and encourage one another.
At the end of the book of Job it says, “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters.”
Job 42:10-13 ESV
My point isn’t that we’ve suffered as much as Job, although we have suffered. I’m seeking to highlight how God in his kindness has a way of bringing healing, and restoring the loss that we’ve suffered.
Our Loving Father Uses Our Pain
I hate that Hannah is no longer on earth with us, while at the same time I’m so grateful for our hope of heaven. I’m grateful for a God who is acquainted with grief, and who uses our pain. He uses our journey to bless others. There’s still so much that I don’t know, and that I don’t understand, but I do know that God is good and that He desires to give His children good things.
I know that he made me to be a loving and caring dad to other young friends that we minister with. It gives me a sense of pride when they call me papá in Spanish, which means dad. Some of them also call me padre in Spanish, which means father. And they call Dawn mamá and madre, mom and mother.
I give thanks for these relationships, and I see God doing a greater work in and through Dawn and me as our spiritual family grows.
These are some of the reasons that I give thanks!
God is so good!
Extend Your Hands to Help!
Our love for our familia and our concern for them moves us to help them in their need. This is especially true for our familia on the Big Island, because of all they are suffering. We give thanks that they can now meet together for public church services after almost two years of not being able to gather. However, the food shortage continues, the lack of basic needs continues. The inflation for food and goods has reached 500%. So we ask you at this time to extend your hands to help our familia. Thank you for taking the time to pray for our familia and to consider this need!
Donate Today
In His Grip, Dave