Thanksgiving Thoughts

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and so I've been thinking about all the things I have to be thankful for. Our pastor's sermon last week was on the subject, and he made the statement that if you find someone who is genuinely happy, you will be looking at someone who is thankful. Truly thankful people are genuinely happy, contented folks, he said, and I agree. So...I've been trying to focus more on what I have, rather than what I don't have that I want or think I need.

Take my computer, for example. It's about 9 years old. Twenty gigs of memory seemed so huge back then. Now it struggles to run e-mail and Word. (Forget my Adobe photoshop!) Yes, I am planning to buy a new one--hopefully in the next month or two. Until then, I'm working at being thankful that I HAVE a computer, that I can send and receive e-mails, and read (and now write) blogs!

Then there's the van that's 10 years old. We keep thinking we will replace it, but then something goes wrong, and we end up fixing it so that we can eventually sell it. Once you put some money into it, you feel like you need to drive it a while longer! I've been eyeing every model on the road for months. But in the past 10 days, I've been purposefully not thinking about which new car I want, and working at just being thankful that I have one that works.

Of course there's also the house projects that need time and money. Since the weather just dropped about 40 degrees last night, it's easy now to be thankful for a nice, warm home--and never mind the walls that need painting and the floors and windows that needs replacing.

We all know that the house, the car, the computer--they aren't things that really matter. So why is it that we get so distracted and start making them so important?

So, my goal between now and Christmas is to be truly thankful --for the big important stuff and the little stuff. Our pastor's other comment last week was that not only are happy people thankful people--but happy people are generous as well. So if we want to be really happy, we need to be thankful and be generous to others. That's a good thought to lead us into this season of giving!

Have a blessed and thankful day tomorrow--and in the weeks to come.