Thanksgiving

If you are on Facebook, you may have noticed some of your friends doing a 30 days of Thanksgiving countdown. Quite simply, you give one thing per day that you are thankful for. This not a bad idea because we so often forget to thank God for the blessings we have. And blessed we are. I know that many folk are going through some of the roughest times in their lives at this time. I have two friends that lost their husbands, in their 50's, this year and I have ached for them. This time of year seems to make it more difficult to deal with that loss.

I don't know about you, but, I find it hard sometimes to think about what I could be thankful for. We have a tradition at my mother-in-laws as we sit at the table, we each give thanks for something before the blessing and the eventual destruction of the bounty in front of us. The difficulty of thankfulness shows at that time. Everyone of us has had the situation of just saying, "I am thankful for my family". There is nothing wrong with that but we should be thankful for much more. I believe, our problem is we take so many things for granted and don't view them as blessings. Our human nature, at least lately if not always, is to be wanting more or to feel entitled to something we don't have or have not earned or given to us from God's love for us. God warned us about that in the "Ten Commandments", "Thou shalt not covet....".

I hope this does not seem to be "preachie" because I have the same difficulties describing what I am thankful for as well as the next person. I want to lump all of my blessings into one little catch phrase to get myself off the hook. So, I think I will try to list some of my thankfulness now.

I am thankful for:
 1.  Jesus Christ who by giving of his life and rising from the dead has given me the choice to follow him and have eternal life.
 2.  God providing safety for my son-in-law while he was deployed to Iraq.
 3.  My wife who continues to hang with me even on my worst days.
 4.  My children, for they have brought me joy.
 5.  My Mom and Dad, for their unconditional love and the godly heritage they provide
 6.  My brother and sisters
 7.  My extended family (in laws)
 8.  My job, so many don't have one now.
 9.  My church family for their love
10.  United States of America and it's godly heritage that has provided the freedom we have to even have a Thanksgiving day.
11. The things that make life more comfortable (and likely make me more complacent on thanking God).

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. May you be thankful today for the blessings God has provided you.