Skip to main content

Tryptophan?

By November 28, 2019August 30th, 2022Devotional

It’s Thanksgiving Day, 2019. Andrew and I cooked one of our largest turkeys to date – 31# as it went into the oven this morning. This is the first Thanksgiving that all of our children have been present since Jill moved to Oklahoma 18 years ago. Fortunately, she and her family have now moved back near us and it was great to to have them “home” for our celebration today.

We had a grand meal together with the kids and their kids – a nice way to kick off the holiday season before the rush of Black Friday tomorrow – something that I refuse to participate in. But especially as Janet and I get older, it gets to be a little more difficult to host the meal and then do the clean-up. But dessert was also awesome and everyone helped contribute to the day.

Admittedly, I am tired tonight. I had every intention of writing some wonderful post but the truth of the matter is that I actually took a short nap after all the work of the turkey and dressing. This was the 47th year in a row that I have been responsible for cooking the bird and Andrew is learning the tricks of the trade and how our family has cooked turkeys for almost 100 years. Eventually, he will be the master and taking over the cooking chores on Thanksgiving.

I want to blame my exhaustion on tryptophan, the chemical in turkeys that people swear makes them tired after the traditional meal, but research shows that turkeys really don’t carry any more tryptophan than beef, chicken or other meats we normally consume. So it must have been the amount of work that we all did to ring in the Christmas season the right way!

So, rather than go on and on, our verse for tonight is from the apostle  Paul as he teaches his young pastor friend, Timothy. Paul tells his young protege, in 1 Timothy 2:1, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—” What a great encouragement for us. God wants us to live with a spirit of kindness and in addition to the worship of Him, we are charged to pray for and be thankful for everyone!

My prayer is that we will all give thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed on us this year. And for all of those who have suffered loss, or are dealing with illness and other hardships, my prayer is that God will hear our intercessory prayers and lighten their burdens, giving them rest and joy in the midst of their trials and anxiety. Certainly, wishing that God will miraculously heal those who are ill is also my prayer this Thanksgiving evening. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

Leave a Reply