We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day. It was a day that I reflected on my family. This is the first year since I've been back  home that I did not go anywhere. I was determined to stay home with my husband, my kids, and our dinner. Raiyawna, unfortunately for me, was parading the streets of New York City having the time of her life, and I was feeling like a sheep who'd lost her lamb.
As I took inventory of my children, I realized that they are truly becoming young adults and there is nothing that I can do to stop that. I said a prayer of this sort, "Lord I thank you for my family and although Raiyawna could not be with us, I thank you for allowing Rasco to be a part of this family and this dinner." One day, I will probably be sitting at he and Dob's table thanking God that they allowed me a chance to visit with them. Life is so rewarding when we look at the simplest things that God has blessed us with. When I say simplest, I don't mean our children. I mean tables, dinners, fellowship, knowing how to cook, and taste buds. When you really take the time to think about, there are so many things you can be grateful for.
Well, I just felt like sharing a piece of my heart today and to take the opportunity to remind you to be grateful for the things that God has done; both great and small.

Have you ever wonder why it seems that God's Word is not coming to past in your life. Or how you hear the Word of God but it doesn't seem to take the same affect on you as it does others. The Word is so profound and it will accomplish that which it was set out to accomplish. The enemy knows this, so the only way that he can hinder the Word from taking full root in you and manifesting itself through you- is to keep you from getting the Word.
A dam is a wall that is built to stop the flow of water; or to cause a detourance. There are two dams in our lives that are continuously trying to stop the flow of living waters from moving freely in our lives.
These two dams are:
 1) Our Ears, and
 2) Our Minds.
First let me deal with our minds that conceptualizes, organizes, and compares information. This multi-functional job holder, has its own way of rationalizing what it wants and does not want. It has the ability to be led by your heart (not the cardiovascular but the heart of the mind), which is responsible for all that is right within you; your spiritual nature, but rarely is this who it desires to be led by. The mind desires to take upon its self the responsibility of leading you. So much so, that your own mind will set up dams to stop you from hearing your heart and will allow demonic sources to control and direct it. Find a person that is always talking foolishly, then you'll know what's in their heart has been tainted by their minds. If you tell them the reason why they need Christ, they will try to tell you whether it is feasible for them to live without Christ based on the information that it has stores and the factual information that Christ was a man becomes their reasoning for conceptualizing His ability to be the Savior of the world.
Then there are those ears. If they become the avenue for that which the mind obtains information to conceptualize, organize, and compare....why wouldn't Satan fight endlessly to make sure that the information you receive is full of deceit, lies, and distorted information? Believe me, he does and these are the dams that he ushers your own mind to put in your ears. That's why people are not hearing the Word of God. The mind has alreaedy decided that the Word is information that isn't needed to live, and the ears follow suit by becoming deaf to the truth.
We must remove these dams in order for God's Word to take full course in our lives and we must stay on guard against a present enemy who desires to kill, steal, and destroy God's truth with lies. You can not stop God's Word from fulfilling the purpose for which God spoke it through existence. You might as well know the Word since  you can't stop the Word. Then there is no since in knowing the Word and half heartedly believing the Word. Even Satan knows the Word and believes....if he didn't, why would he fight so hard to keep you from knowing the Word. If you know the Word, you might as well live by the Word, because what is to come is already destined and set in motion and you have been given the distinct opportunity to decide your end. Those of us who live the Word, begin to love the Word because we understand that the Word was God, and the Word is God.
Don't let these dams stop you from getting all that God has in store for you. The Word will cause you to be fruitful and blessed some sixtyfold and some a hundredfold. I believe that your blessing and the extent of what you are blessed with is determined by how much of the Word you know, live by, operate because of, and operate through. So tell your ears, "You will hear God's Word", and tell your mind, "You don't have to figure it out, just get an understanding. The Word is, was, and will always be, my saving grace." Faith comes by hearing, and complete hearing by the Word of God. If  you have not heard and believed the Word of God (the Gospel), then you have not heard nothing at all. Be Blessed.

Danyelle Scroggins is the author of Not Until You're Ready, His Mistress or God's Daughter, and the eBook The Power of Pain. To find out more about the author, visit www.danyellescroggin