Thanksgiving really is personal to be genuine, isn't it? We are most thankful for those things that are most personal and most appreciated at the personal level. So, as we celebrate Thanksgiving as a country and as families today, I also enjoyed a few minutes alone with the Lord by my favorite pond this morning. I thought about the three parts of giving thanks. There's the one who is thankful...there are the reasons to be thankful...and there is the One to express thanks to. The exercise of actually saying Thank You to our wonderful Lord for the specific blessings He has poured into our lives seems to be one of the healthiest non-cardio forms of fitness. (Actually it is cardio...just a different view of the heart that is being exercised!). To give thanks means to take a personal scan of our lives and consider the specific ways that we have been helped...from life itself, and health...to spouses who love us no matter what...to children who arrived as mystery packages in small bundles and then grew to reveal talents and qualities that amaze us...to parents who stood by us as we, ourselves, endured and inflicted growing pains...to the gift of His Son that we might live forever in Heaven. So, giving thanks means to look in...to look up...and to express gratitude in sincerity to a great God who has demonstrated His love for us daily. In a way it seems that expressing thanks should be as routine as breathing...we inhale His grace and exhale our gratitude.
Happy and blessed day of giving thanks to each of you. I am grateful for all my friends and family!
Colossians 3:14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Rob Smith
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