Every year we have the opportunity to stop for a moment and count our blessings. Unfortunately with Black Friday and now even Black Thursday, Thanksgiving has become more a symbol for early shopping than it is for giving thanks.
Humility and gratefulness shows strength of character – not weakness. It is disturbing to think we may have forgotten how to be grateful for all the things we already have.
Thanksgiving isn’t just a time for turkey and stuffing. Giving thanks is an important value humans need. It isn’t some corny, left over virtue from the past that we don’t need any more.
Gratefulness and humility is important to our health: mental, spiritual and physical. It motivates us when the world looks black. It energizes us to pick ourselves up and begin yet again. It gives us hope when our future looks hopeless.
The more we practice it throughout the year, the more we benefit from it.
Here are some of the things I continue to be grateful for:
• The freedom to develop my talents and use them in service to others as well as myself
• The opportunities to express myself in positive and helpful ways
• The ability to choose how I will respond to whatever life throws at me
• The freedom to worship a God who is gracious and forgiving and gives me wisdom and strength
• The capability to reach out, encourage and help another in their struggles
• That I still live in a free nation, where I have the opportunity to work and choose positive principles and values
Blessings to each and every one of you this Thanksgiving. May the bowing of your head in prayer and thanksgiving give you the greatest blessing of all.
Marlene Anderson