Oh...To Be Thankful!

It's Thanksgiving morning, about 5:20 and I'm hanging out with my father in the living room of their home in Temecula.  Its about 30 degrees outside, slight breeze and the coffee is brewing (The heater is on...though the window in the study is open - my dad just told me its my mother's prerogative?  Okay...).  Today, I'm encouraged by tradition, by the media and the many decorations posted all over to be Thankful - great advice!

You know, I've always loved this time of year, especially watching and listening to our soldiers overseas saying they love and miss their family - really grabs my heart!  Just watched a young man in Afghanistan tell his mother to have a nice day - so cool!

Thanksgiving is a day set apart to be...thankful!  Thankfulness, defined, means to be grateful, appreciative and indebted to something or someone.  The other day I read an article entitled, "Be Thankful!"  Here's an excerpt:

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world. If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8 percent of the world's wealthy."

Talk about perspective!  I know of a scripture that says we are to be thankful in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  As I enter yet another great day, I propose to be thankful, to be full of gratitude, and to be appreciative for all that I've been blessed with.  From a great family to my health, from my Eternal Security to the Comforter that resides within me - today, my choice and privilege is to be Thankful!  And you know, I'd highly encourage you to do the same...we are truly blessed!