Giving Thanks

​Counting Blessings
I Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” It seems more and more that people are unthankful.  In fact, it is more likely that you will hear people complaining today than being thankful.  All around us are blessings, yet often what gets singled out are the negatives in our lives.
​
There is a song that we sing at church called, “Count Your Blessings.”  The words go like this, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.”  In my youth my mother changed it to “name them ton by ton.”  She was trying to teach that blessings are so abundant we are unable to name them all.
Is Thanksgiving season only about stuffing yourself with turkey, watching football or shopping?  It should be a reminder of all that we have to be thankful for.  Today, we woke up in a free country.  Many people around the world did not.  Our blessings include warm beds, central air and heat, and full shelves at the grocery store.  We have churches to attend with padded chairs and people who love us. 

If we start numbering the blessings of our lives instead of the curses, we will find that our spirit raises to a new level.  Let us all plan more thanksgiving this week.  It truly is a mindset that will change our lives.
​
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything Thy goodness sends.  For flowers that bloom about our feet; for tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; for song of bird, and hum of bee; for all things fair we hear or see. Father in heaven, we thank Thee!”

---