25/11/2015

Good Morning!

As you can probably hear from my accent, I‘m an American. My husband and I have lived predominately in the UK for several years and of course we love the history, the beautiful buildings and English manners! We’ve learned important lessons: I no longer say “I’m mad!” when I’m actually cross and I’ve learned the hard way to ask for ‘jam’ and not ‘jelly’ on my toast at breakfast.

Today is a special day for Americans. It’s Thanksgiving, where families celebrate and feast on turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is a holiday where the sole purpose is to be grateful for our blessings.

The Bible is filled with calls to be grateful.

Why is gratitude so important? Because life is a gift and God is good. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and his love endures forever.”

The Bible says the path to gratitude lies in “remembering.” We remember the good things of the past and we express gratitude for our present blessings. When we fill our minds with gratitude it makes it almost impossible to be ill-tempered, anxious or self-pitying.

Entitlement and envy will ‘block’ gratitude. We become resentful because we feel we deserve better. We look over our shoulder and believe someone has what we should have. But no one’s life is as it appears. We all have our own unique pressures and pain. It’s foolish to want to be someone else - that’s simply exchanging our set of problems for theirs.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us in the past. We’re so grateful for your blessings today. And we trust you for our future. Amen