For my family, Thanksgiving has always been the day that friends and relatives get together to thank God for His blessings on us for the last year.  We'll have the kids and grandkids over, the house will be noisy and the aroma coming from the turkey and dressing in the kitchen will be maddening.  Before we eat, we'll all gather at the table and give thanks not only for what He has given us, but what He has kept us from!

He kept me from having the big one take me to that big fishing hole in the sky.  Three stays in the hospital with a bum ticker is not a lot of fun, but for excitement value, it can't be beat.  After a while though, it gets boring and you just wish someone could fix the problem.  I'm certainly not complaining!  A week in the hospital with beautiful nurses coming in and out of my room day and night is not a terribly bad way to spend a few days.  I guess God's not finished with me yet.

He's kept my favorite fishing sites from being rearranged by one of the numerous hurricanes roaring inland from the gulf this year.  Apalachicola and St. George Island, Florida are two of my favorite places on earth and they were spared the horrific devastation that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Ike at Galveston, Texas.  God and I are fishing buddies from way back.  I guess He didn't want anything to mess up our fishing trips together.

In His infinite wisdom, He's kept me from worrying about my 401 K being wiped out due to the roller coaster ride of the stock market.  Based on the theory that you have to have money in an investment account in order to make or lose money, I've been spared the anxiety of thousands who have watched their retirement packages die a slow death in today's financial markets. 

I've kept my money in an old sock hidden under a big rock near a tree in the back yard.  Biblically that's not the way stewardship over what God has entrusted to us is supposed to work, but with our nation's economic turndown, it certainly seems to be a pretty wise move.

He's kept us from losing any children to death.  I can't begin to understand the heartbreak of losing a child, which my brother did this past year.  A car wreck took the life of his oldest son.  We thank God for saving us from that terrible experience.

He's kept me from having to mow the yard more than once this year.  In the third year of a major drought, the grass on our lawn barely makes it through spring time before it begins to die from lack of water.  Despite continuous soaking, the grass never seems to get enough to drink.  If you look hard enough, you'll always find something positive in every bad situation.

He's kept me from enduring another mediocre college football season by the Alabama Crimson Tide!  After 10 games in which Alabama has won all of them, they have already won the SEC's western division and will be going to the SEC Championship game against The University of Florida!  I know that President Elect Barack Obama has been called the messiah, but all of us Bama fans believe that title should go to Nick Saban! 

Finally, I will gratefully thank Him for all of the serious things that he is keeping me and my family from having to endure that we know absolutely nothing about.  Sometimes after danger has passed, I see evidence of how, except for God's intervention, a situation occurred that could have been disastrous for me and mine. 

I can't see ahead, but as long as I have faith that He's keeping  bad things away from me, I couldn't care less what the future brings.