At Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading I often think of Cor\u00adrie Ten Boom and her fleas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you don\u2019t know the ref\u00ader\u00adence, Cor\u00adrie and her sis\u00adter Bet\u00adsie were Chris\u00adtians who were thrown into a Nazi con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion camp and placed in a bar\u00adracks infest\u00aded with fleas. Straight\u00adaway Bet\u00adsie said that the only way to respond to such a place was with Scrip\u00adture and remind\u00aded Cor\u00adrie of the Bible pas\u00adsage they had read that morn\u00ading from 1st Thes\u00adsa\u00adlo\u00adni\u00adans 5, espe\u00adcial\u00adly vers\u00ades 16\u201318.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rejoice always, pray con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly, give thanks in all cir\u00adcum\u00adstances; for this is God\u2019s will for you in Christ Jesus.<\/p>1 Thess 5:16\u201318<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
So Bet\u00adsie led Cor\u00adrie in prayer, giv\u00ading thanks that at least they were togeth\u00ader, that they had a Bible with them, and then Bet\u00adsie began to give thanks for the fleas which had bit\u00adten their legs. Cor\u00adrie thought that was sil\u00adly and said, \u201cBet\u00adsie, there\u2019s no way even God could make me grate\u00adful for a flea.\u201d But Bet\u00adsie insist\u00aded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lat\u00ader they learned that the fleas which afflict\u00aded them also pro\u00adtect\u00aded them. The guards wouldn\u2019t enter the bar\u00adracks because they didn\u2019t want to get fleas. Cor\u00adrie real\u00adized that Bet\u00adsie had been right to be thank\u00adful for the fleas \u2014 the fleas pre\u00advent\u00aded assaults by the guards and the fleas also gave them a mea\u00adsure of pri\u00adva\u00adcy allow\u00ading them to lead a Bible study in a con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sto\u00adry and many oth\u00aders are told in Cor\u00adrie Ten Boom\u2019s book The Hid\u00ading Place<\/em> and I high\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend it to you (the sto\u00adry of the fleas unfolds from pages 218\u2013231 in the edi\u00adtion I con\u00adsult\u00aded to get Cor\u00adrie\u2019s quote right).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in chal\u00adleng\u00ading sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions there are occa\u00adsions for grat\u00adi\u00adtude. I don\u2019t know all you\u2019re going through right now (I bare\u00adly know all I\u2019m going through right now!) , but I\u2019m sure there\u2019s at least one part of your life that you wish was dif\u00adfer\u00adent than it is. What\u00adev\u00ader the hard\u00adship, I pray it pass\u00ades quick\u00adly. I also pray that while it lasts God opens your heart to expe\u00adri\u00adence gen\u00aduine grat\u00adi\u00adtude in the midst of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
May you have a delight\u00adful Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading \u2014 and remem\u00adber the fleas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading I often think of Cor\u00adrie Ten Boom and her fleas. If you don\u2019t know the ref\u00ader\u00adence, Cor\u00adrie and her sis\u00adter Bet\u00adsie were Chris\u00adtians who were thrown into a Nazi con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion camp and placed in a bar\u00adracks infest\u00aded with fleas. Straight\u00adaway Bet\u00adsie said that the only way to respond to such a place was \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cHap\u00adpy Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading!\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"At Thanksgiving I often think of Corrie Ten Boom and her fleas.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,22],"tags":[305],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-nuggets","category-spiritual-growth","tag-thanksgiving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1L7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6765"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6768,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions\/6768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}