Thanksgiving Essays
This site annually hosts essay contests in November/December entitled "Why I am personally grateful to God." The essay was to be written including reasons why the author was grateful to God and how He has helped him in his life. Entries were selected on the basis of how they gave glory to God.
| 2001 Essay |
| No Entry Received |
| 2000 Essay |
| There is one real reason I am grateful to God. It is that
I am able to sit here today and type this. My answer is very simple
here. The basic fact that I am able to convey my emotions, and that I
have emotions which I can share is a miracle in itself. Before, when I
was doubting God and Christianity, I had no direction, no reason. Now I
do. I know that everything that happens to me, good or bad, has meaning.
Through my mistakes and talents, pain and happiness, I have learned more
about myself and the world than I ever would have without God. Without
God, nothing kept me from being unfaithful, nothing moved me. Without
God, I became very apathetic and undriven. Now, I am criticized for my
beliefs. I attend school in the engineering department of a university
and few of the students are religious. Often I have a hard time
justifying myself to these people. This has only makes me stronger,
because I am logical myself yet I still have strong faith and emotion
when it comes to my religion. To turn around an individual like myself,
God deserves praise. God deserves praise for allowing me the ability to
convey my beliefs through science. God gave us the ability to find the
truth, to answer questions. God gave us wonderful emotions all for free.
My understanding of God has not only made me more faithful but a better
person in general. But this understanding is only possible by God!
Without God, nothing is possible, but with God, so much is possible, and
I have witnessed this first hand by accepting Christ simply by my own
investigation and questioning, not by force from parents, etc.
Adam |
| 1999 Essay |
| I am personally grateful to God, because I was uncertain in
the path that I had chosen in life. Just under a year ago, I tried to
commit suicide; However, I was unsuccessful, even though I had very high
and dangerous levels of poison in my body. I took this as a sign from God
to change my ways and better myself. A second chance if you will. I'm am
very grateful for this "second chance" that he has given me. I
have used it in a productive way, I went on to graduate high school with
my class, and I am now attending college and maintaining a 3.33 GPA as a
true freshman with 17 credits, while being an active member of the track
and field team. I have become an active member of a local Christian church
that is here near my college campus. I am serving God in any way that I
can through my newly found church, and I feel that he has shown me my true
friends, and how I would have hurt them if I would have accomplished my
horrendous act. Every morning I wake up grateful that I am alive and well,
thanks to God and the second chance that he has given to me.
Joe |
Reflections
We are what we think.
- 02/09/2012 12:28 PM
Quote of the Week: Kenneth Samples, 4
You may have an: iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, But only Jesus is the I Am (John 8:58). –Kenneth Samples, Sunday school class, Christ Reformed Church
() - 02/07/2012 10:11 AM
Blaise’s Best Bet, Part 2: Pioneering Physicist
Despite dying in 1662 at age 39, French philosopher Blaise Pascal left a mark on mathematics and science still present to this day. Part 2 of this series on Pascal’s intellectual legacy focuses not only on his practical contributions to … Continue reading
() - 02/02/2012 10:19 AM
Quote of the Week: T. V. Morris
Ockham on the razor – ‘I would much rather have had a good after-shave named for me.’ – T. V. Morris, The Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy (South Bend, Indiana: Diamond Communications, 1989), 45.
() - 01/31/2012 12:47 AM
Blaise’s Best Bet, Part 1: an Introduction to Blaise Pascal
How many seventeenth-century Christians have modern-day computer languages named after them? Only one—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662).1 Inventor of the first digital calculator, Pascal is described by many historians as one of the founding fathers of modern science. He is widely known … Continue reading
() - 01/26/2012 12:24 PM
Quote of the Week: Robert M. Bowman Jr.
To say that the Trinity cannot be understood likewise is imprecise, or at least open to misinterpretation. Trinitarian theologians do not mean to imply that the Trinity is unintelligible nonsense. Rather, the point they are making is that the Trinity … Continue reading
() - 01/24/2012 12:09 AM
My Daughter’s Brain-Mind
When my oldest child, Sarah (now 24 years old), was a toddler she loved to push the buttons on the keyboard of my very first computer. While I was working on the computer, she would come up to me and … Continue reading
() - 01/19/2012 12:14 PM
Quote of the Week: Anthony A. Hoekema, 3
The Scriptures teach that God saves us not as puppets but as persons, and that we must therefore be active in our salvation. The Bible, in a way which is deeply mysterious, combines God’s sovereignty with our responsibility in the … Continue reading
() - 01/17/2012 12:25 AM
An Inconvenient Duty
Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. I never tire of hearing the incredible message that the Son of God took a human nature and became the God-man at his Incarnation (Philippians 2:5–11). But this past December, just … Continue reading
() - 01/12/2012 09:16 AM
Quote of the Week: Kenneth Samples, 3
Courage is forged only through facing one’s fears. Steel must be refined by fire. For faith to grow, it often has to be tested by trial. –Kenneth Samples, church lecture entitled “Facing Life’s Challenges and God’s Reasons for Suffering”
() - 01/10/2012 11:43 AM
Are You a Renaissance Christian? 12 Tips for Pursuing Knowledge and Wisdom in Daily Life
I first heard the expression “renaissance Christian” from apologist and attorney John Warwick Montgomery in the early 1980s. Montgomery gave a lecture at the former Simon Greenleaf School of Law on the importance of developing the Christian mind. The lecture … Continue reading
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Last updated November 25, 2001
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