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.
- 06/20/2017 07:00 AM
The Big Questions of Life: Death and Grief, Part 1
This might sound a little strange or even morbid to some, but I am captivated by the topic of death. The first Catholic funeral I attended as a boy fascinated me. I’ll never forget the elaborate Funeral Mass, the foreboding casket lying near the altar, and the priest’s liberal use of incense, which filled the church with a pleasant aroma.…
() - 06/13/2017 12:00 PM
Take Up and Read: A History of Apologetics
This current blog series on Reflections is intended to encourage Christians to read more vigorously by providing a beginner’s guide to some of the Christian classics in such fields as theology, philosophy, and apologetics. Hopefully a very brief introduction to these important Christian texts will motivate today’s believers, as St. Augustine was called to in his dramatic conversion to Christianity,…
() - 06/06/2017 06:00 AM
Work and Leisure: Divine Gifts but Potential Idols
In the Christian world-and-life view, both work and leisure are considered good things. Both come as gifts from God’s hand and are rooted and discerned from the Lord’s foundational act in creation. Yet these gracious endowments can be easily misused and become idols that wreak havoc in people’s lives. The diabolical nature of sin is that it so enslaves people…
() - 05/30/2017 06:00 AM
Take Up and Read: Who Is This Jesus?
This current blog series on Reflections is intended to encourage Christians to read more vigorously by providing a beginner’s guide to some of the Christian classics in such fields as theology, philosophy, and apologetics. Hopefully a very brief introduction to these important Christian texts will motivate today’s believers, as St. Augustine was called to in his dramatic conversion to Christianity,…
() - 05/23/2017 06:00 AM
How Does Zoroastrianism Compare to Christianity?
Everybody knows about the Middle Eastern monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But few people know there is another religion that originated in the Middle East whose adherents also believe in and worship one God. That little known religion is called Zoroastrianism, or the Parsi faith. As we saw in my previous article, Zoroastrianism is the ancient Persian religion that…
() - 05/16/2017 06:00 AM
Take Up and Read: How to Read a Book
This current blog series on Reflections is intended to encourage Christians to read more vigorously by providing a beginner’s guide to some of the Christian classics in such fields as theology, philosophy, and apologetics. Hopefully a very brief introduction to these important Christian texts will motivate today’s believers, as St. Augustine was called to in his dramatic conversion to Christianity,…
() - 05/09/2017 06:00 AM
That Other Middle Eastern Monotheistic Religion
When you mention Middle Eastern monotheistic religions virtually everyone knows of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But there is a fourth religion—with an estimated 200,000 adherents—that fits that same category, yet few people know much about it at all. Allow me to briefly begin exploring this lesser-known religion by starting with a thought experiment about what might await human beings in…
() - 05/02/2017 07:00 AM
Take Up and Read: A Treatise concerning Religious Affections
This blog series on Reflections is intended to encourage Christians to read more vigorously by providing a beginner’s guide to some of the Christian classics in such fields as theology, philosophy, and apologetics. Hopefully a very brief introduction to these important Christian texts will motivate today’s believers, as St. Augustine was called to in his dramatic conversion to Christianity, to…
() - 04/25/2017 06:00 AM
12 Evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus, Part 7
I like to visit cemeteries because they remind me that I’m mortal and life is very short. Seeing the graves of people also focuses my attention upon eternal issues like what will await me after death. I like to think that reflecting upon my death will help me live a more authentic and focused life. Having now briefly examined nine…
() - 04/18/2017 06:00 AM
12 Evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus, Part 6
It is hard to exaggerate the importance of Jesus’s resurrection to Christianity, for Christ’s resurrection truly stands at the very center of the Christian faith. It serves both as a crucial Christian doctrine and as the faith’s most potent argument: If Jesus actually conquered death, then there is no more important news for all human beings to hear and to…
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http://godandscience.org/doctrine/thanksessays.html
Last updated November 25, 2001
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