{"id":923,"date":"2016-11-23T19:44:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T19:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=923"},"modified":"2016-11-23T19:44:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T19:44:25","slug":"thanksgiving-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2016\/11\/thanksgiving-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and those gathered around your table.<\/p>\n<p>I love this holiday &#8211; so far they haven&#8217;t really found a way to over-commercialize it. It is simply family and friends getting together to share big bird, time-loved dishes from grandmother, football, conversation sprinkled with arguments all hemmed with nostalgia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8221; are trying to encroach on the holiday by opening stores in the late afternoon or early evening. (In recent past, my youngest daughter ventured out to the stores and enjoyed the chaos. The older I get the less I like chaos.<\/p>\n<p>All three of my children will be with me! And 6 of my grandchildren. I&#8217;ll share photos.<\/p>\n<p>But I am sure each of you are preparing for the days with anticipation just like I do. All families are alike. All are dysfunctional. So don&#8217;t beat yourself up over some unpleasantness that occurs. Just don&#8217;t <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">you<\/span> be unpleasant!<\/p>\n<p>And do take the time to thank God for His many blessings. In this country we are blessed with peace, bounty, beauty and diversity which adds color and texture to this amazing tapestry. I am blessed in my family with a father who is still living and has 4 great-great grandchildren and 4 siblings still living and in good health. I came through two successful surgeries this fall. My children are well and employed!<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I look around me and just thank God for the blessing of heat, a dry bed, actress to healthcare, a bed at night &#8211; not to mention that I can get out of bed on my own, can smell and see and hear. So often I just take it for granted&#8230;But it is all God&#8217;s blessing on my life.<\/p>\n<p>It could be gone tonight&#8230;but He is still God and He still blesses me with His presence and love. Nothing can separate me from His unconditional love. Nothing can separate you for His unconditional love.<\/p>\n<p>That is a blessing worth celebrating this Thanksgiving Day!<\/p>\n<p>(And everyday!)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and those gathered around your table. I love this holiday &#8211; so far they haven&#8217;t really found a way to over-commercialize it. It is simply family and friends getting together to share big bird, time-loved dishes from grandmother, football, conversation sprinkled with arguments all hemmed with nostalgia. &#8220;They&#8221;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10,14,40,8,16,84,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-family","category-god","category-gratitude","category-holidays","category-personal-thoughts","category-praise","category-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thanksgiving - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2016\/11\/thanksgiving-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and those gathered around your table. I love this holiday &#8211; so far they haven&#8217;t really found a way to over-commercialize it. It is simply family and friends getting together to share big bird, time-loved dishes from grandmother, football, conversation sprinkled with arguments all hemmed with nostalgia. &#8220;They&#8221;&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2016\/11\/thanksgiving-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-23T19:44:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thanksgiving - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2016\/11\/thanksgiving-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thanksgiving - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and those gathered around your table. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}